NY Magazine Cover Story - Hollywood's Nepotism Babies

I always find it interesting the celebrities who escape the nepo label and those who will never live it down. For example, Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Hudson are called nepo babies but Angelina Jolie and Julia Roberts aren’t struck with that label and don’t carry that stigma despite both being beneficiaries of nepotism.

Even Hollywood rags are now acknowledging that it’s a problem that’s gotten out of control due to the rise of streaming and social media. That gives me hope.

^Maybe if you truly hate the Nepo Donor, and are quite verbal about it, you free yourself from the label?

If you get rid of the nepotism privilege, which benefits predominantly wealthy white children, you could achieve greater racial and socioeconomic diversity since they’re so concerned about DEI.

[quote]but Angelina Jolie and Julia Roberts aren’t struck with that label

What's even stranger is that Emma Roberts IS stuck with the label, even when Julia isn't. If you're going to note the one, it seems like you'd have to note the other.

Jack Quaid didn't get any of his father's looks.

Nobody cares about this except celebrity obsessed homosexuals who wish they were famous via being someone's "nepo baby"

It's an extension of greater social stratification throughout the U.S. Nepotism has infected every industry and institution. Journalism, education, politics, finance.

Hollywood already had a Nepotism problem and now it's stifling the whole industry.

R8: Absolutely it’s a problem not unique to Hollywood.

All of Meryl Streep’s children inherited her looks but not a single one of them inherited her acting talent.

I guess they redeem themselves once they show a little talent but when the world is littered with Moore/Willis spawn and Osbourne creatures there’s little hope. Sadly we have yet to enter the world of the Beyoncé/Jay-Z, Kim & Kanye and other Kardash… droppings

And yes, I would have liked to have been born into a life where I didn’t have to work to earn my keep.

For every Anjelica Huston, one gets 2 dozen Lily Rose Depps and Maude Apatows.

I think it’s funny the person mentioned is Maude Apatow!

But I think time works these things out. Dakota Johnson is a decent working actress, but not a huge star. LR Depp may be a model, but thankfully her acting career seems to have faded

I don't mind if the person actually turns out to be halfway decent. I don't see a reason to expand the circle of entitled families by adding yet another new celebrity if we can simply recycle the children of existing ones.

Sure, I would have preferred if Jack Quaid had inherited his father's looks, but he does a decent job on The Boys, so am fine with it.

Ben Platt was good in Evan Hansen. He should have stuck to Broadway. His turn in the movie was atrocious.

Oliver Hudson is hot, so he gets a pass.

Besides Angelica Huston, there must be other nepo babies in the current generation who aren't that bad.

R1, I think a few factors helped Julia escape that label. Her major connection was her brother, and sibling connections don't inspire the same reaction as when Mommy and Daddy get someone a job. She followed her brother to Hollywood, she wasn't born into it like her niece.

Plus, Eric was never a huge star with the type of pull that could guarantee Julia a career, and her fame eclipsed his so rapidly that it was obvious the public interest in her was geniune.

Can you be a "Nepo baby" when your talent, acclaim and achievements eclipse those of any other family member -- and any other actor/singer/performer of your generation?!

Chalamet anyone?

[quote]Besides Angelica Huston, there must be other nepo babies in the current generation who aren't that bad.

How the hell is Angelica Huston of “the current generation”, she’s 71 years old. I actually thought she was older, she sure looks it. Anjelica was a smoker and did lots of drugs back in the day.

Nepotism happens in many other fields besides showbiz, especially in city and state government jobs, the police and fire departments and so many other fields, especially creative fields.

R19: Also Hollywood nepotism is not just in acting. It's everywhere from directors to even production assistants on set.

R17: He may not come from an acting family per se but I think the media and fangirls alike forget or choose to ignore his connections. I'm sure his aunt helped him get the job on Homeland. After that is where it gets really interesting. He gets signed to an elite agency after the minor role on Homeland and maybe a few off Broadway plays. His agent just happens to be married to the producer on Call Me By Your Name. So do we think he blew or fucked his agent to get the puzzling career success he has today?

Also I believe either the aunt or uncle was friends with Woody Allen and absolutely that is how he got the lead role in ARDINY. Just watch the movie and you’ll understand.

This story is paywalled. Can I find it archived somewhere?

[quote]For example, Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Hudson are called nepo babies but Angelina Jolie and Julia Roberts aren’t struck with that label and don’t carry that stigma despite both being beneficiaries of nepotism.

Paltrow could have escaped it but she gloried in her connection to famous parents and the fact that Steven Spielberg is her godfather, and played it up to the press.

Jolie and Roberts have always played it down.

I don't understand how a person could dislike a celebrity, yet be so interested in their career that they can recite facts about their aunt, their agent, and their agent's spouse, when none of that is common knowledge.

What about Zosia Mamet? She’s arguably the worst actor of the lot.

The most annoying part about nepotism is when the nepo babies complain they have to work twice as hard and that as soon as they enter the profession there are people ready to bring them down.

[quote]As the career of Chet Hanks makes abundantly clear, this quality is not guaranteed to be passed down through the generations.

Respect.

Don’t be obtuse,R18

[quote]Angelica Huston is not that bad. Are there nepo babies of the current generation who aren't that bad either?

FTFY

Sorry—

…about whom you bitched

[quote]I always find it interesting the celebrities who escape the nepo label and those who will never live it down. For example, Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Hudson are called nepo babies but Angelina Jolie and Julia Roberts aren’t struck with that label and don’t carry that stigma despite both being beneficiaries of nepotism.

Kate Hudson never achieved much of a distinguished career aside from her first movie yet for years kept getting prime roles. And GOOP's repellent image completely tarnished her movie career.

Those two stringy corn husks didn't earn any screen time. Jolie and Julia were captivating, it's undeniable. There's a true charisma/beauty factor at play here that gives legitimacy to some Nepobs. Such as- Maude Apatow won't be a sexy crime fighter, Lena Dunham will never be a model, and Hailey Baldwin... I mean, what does she do really at all ..?

R26 Zosia is no Streep but she's not the worst. She's fine in what I've seen her in. And she's not being pushed on us 24/7 all day every day.

At least Jolie didn't use her real surname.

Bollywood also has a lot of nepotism. Like Ranbir Kapoor for example who one the one hand claims that he was offered a lead role in one of the newer Star Wars movies. But at the same time also claims that he turned it down because he refused to have to audition.

R32 I believe Jolie would have been a star no matter who her parents were. She has " it". She could have come from a small town in Iowa and still would've wound up famous.

Dunham is not a nepo baby, no matter how much pissy media and twitter whiners try to push that narrative. No one outside a few bougie art snobs spanning a few blocks in Manhattan knew or gave a shit whom her parents were.

[quote]to see a Zoë Kravitz or Kate Hudson display that same intangible sparkle you saw in their parents. “They walk in the room, and they have this thing,” says the casting director. “They just know. They literally know. You’re drawn to that, and you’re a little bit afraid of it. Because it’s bigger than you.”

R33, guess you missed Flight Attendant. She was Billie Lourd-level bad.

R8 Yeah. Just as an aside, personally I'm most bothered by journalistic nepotism. We need more journalists who come from diverse backgrounds ( working class, rural poor, struggling middle class, etc). Too many people in the press were born to wealth and privilege and it colors their understanding of a lot of things in life.

R39, and their sources and ability to get information on the ground. And blend.

[quote]Dunham is not a nepo baby, no matter how much pissy media and twitter whiners try to push that narrative. No one outside a few bougie art snobs spanning a few blocks in Manhattan knew or gave a shit whom her parents were.

I agree. I don't get why Lens is always mentioned as having a career due to nepotism. Her parents were two downtown Soho/Tribeca artists, early in their careers they shared a loft with other artists.

Sure, both her parents come from moneyed backgrounds, but neither had any sort of showbiz connections.

Judd Apatow saw Lens first film, 'Tiny Furniture', he enjoyed it and he's the reason we have to endure this self-absorbed mentally ill hot mess.

I think "nepo baby" is a stupid term. It's lazy and uninspired.

R41, I don't think Dunham strictly counts as a nepo baby, but it's fair to acknowledge that she had a lot of advantages that the vast majority of people don't have. Her family had the media connections to get the New York Times to cover her vegan dinner party as a high school student. That's highly unusual.

Brooklyn Beckham is someone who has a career through nepotism.

See also Gordon Ramsey’s daughter who appeared on the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing last year.

Many of the actors named have relatives who helped their acting career take off and a comfortable middle class background to support them but Paltrow, Jolie, Hudson have all put in great performances in roles they were perfectly cast in.

R43 This current crop of famous people overwhelmingly come from relatively umc backgrounds. These are the kids of doctors, PR agents and lawyers. The days where major actors came from dysfunctional, poor, and trashy backgrounds are gone. And you see it in a lot of performances, there's a certain....grit lacking.

The issue is that she is always singled out by the same people who won't say a word about any other famous people who come from similar upbringings ( either artsy or connected or wealthy backgrounds). Chalamet and Anya Taylor Joy are just two examples of many who came from privilege and influence surpassing Dunhams parents. People just have a bug up their ass about Dunham and use this as an excuse.

I have no issue with them getting jobs if they are relatively talented - who gives a shit. They are actors reading lines in front of a camera - it's not like they are performing brain surgery or negotiating some complicated hostage release or president of the US (oh wait... GWB...gulp...anyway).

I also don't blame them for wanting to go into entertainment. They grow up seeing their parents get all these benefits and make all this money and getting to play pretend for a living - why wouldn't they want to go into that? What's truly impressive is that children of celebrities who go into something completely different that requires hard work.

What drives me crazy is when these "nepo babies" bitch and complain about being labeled as such. Just own it. Maude Apatow is "sad" about it - boohoo.

Dan Levy (who isn't mentioned in this article - I guess because he's old) whines about the "unfair label" of nepotism in every interview I've ever seen of him. It comes off as truly delusional to argue AGAINST the existence of nepotism when their parent is a famous actor or director and they have opportunities based on that.

Nepotism isn't going anywhere. Just acknowledge it and attempt to be a kind and humble person if you've gotten work because of it.

Both Julia and Angie (and Micheal Douglas, RDJ, Jane Fonda, and some others) you believe would have made it on their own. Or at least might have. Based on talent, beauty and charisma.

And they either exponentially passed their nepo donor (Julia, RDJ) or equaled them. That makes those examples so much more palatable.

I don't think it's fair to group in people who had parents who just happened to work in or around the industry (casting directors, agents, fine artists in other fields). That MIGHT get you in the door, but will not guarantee any sort of career. No way. Otherwise, the thousands and thousands of Biz Industry spawn would all have careers.

Like being Speilberg's goddaughter? Yeah. You're getting parts. 100%. But being the daughter of casting agent? Nope. It would get you more auditions than other actors just starting out. But not parts.

R1 Roberts and Jolie were famous before social media. Some people may have known they had connections, but word didn’t get out as much because the media didn’t focus on it.

Also Gen Z is far more away and angry about inequality and privilege. So, they call it out more. Of course ALL they do is call it out; they still watch the shows and buy the merchandise.

Didn't Angelina Jolie distance herself from her father due to his right wing politics?

They paid their dues too- Satisfaction, Hackers, Tv movies... these filler faced chubby midgets go straight to HBO prestige shows after one role in their dad's movie.

R49 I don't think they've spoken in years. But I thought it was more personal than political.

[quote] Zosia is no Streep but she's not the worst. She's fine in what I've seen her in. And she's not being pushed on us 24/7 all day every day

I don't mind Zosia all that much because you like you said she's not being pushed on us all the time.

Nepotism destroyed the fashion industry.

Quite the opposite, R13 - LR Depp is the lead in Sam Levinson new series “The Idol”

I suppose if you get a name for some good perfomances people don't care anymore (specailly if you are not troublesome) that's the reason Lucas Hedges is never mentioned in this kind of articles.

[quote] Yeah. Just as an aside, personally I'm most bothered by journalistic nepotism. We need more journalists who come from diverse backgrounds ( working class, rural poor, struggling middle class, etc). Too many people in the press were born to wealth and privilege and it colors their understanding of a lot of things in life.

I agree with this. I can't stand it how Ronan Farrow has been championed in the journalism world.

[quote] Also Hollywood nepotism is not just in acting. It's everywhere from directors to even production assistants on set.

Good example of that J.J. Philbin.

I think that Michael Douglas, Jane Fonda and Liza Minnelli would've succeeded in show business no matter what, even if they'd been raised on a farm in Iowa. They were all too uniquely talented to not end up as stars.

And Jane Fonda was fucking GORGEOUS as a young woman. No way would she have gone unnoticed.

[quote]that's the reason Lucas Hedges is never mentioned in this kind of articles.

He’s mentioned.

Weird though how he has fallen off the map in the last few years. Hasn’t made a movie or show since 2020, only has a small role in the upcoming Netflix Shirley Chisholm biopic. That’s it.

[quote]I guess they redeem themselves once they show a little talent

Competent acting - the level at which you can get by on a second-tier TV show or a disposable movie - is really not that difficult. I can name a bunch of people from my high school drama club who could act as well as most of the actors I see on TV. A successful career is mostly about luck and connections and your looks.

R53, can you say more about nepotism in the fashion industry?

Tom Hanks youngest son is in a new movie with him. I also recently saw Jack Nicholson’s son in some romcom holiday movie.

Fashion industry is pretty bad too. I guess if you have the connections, you’d help your kids.

[quote]Her family had the media connections to get the New York Times to cover her vegan dinner party as a high school student. That's highly unusual.

This is true - it's not just the kids, but people who travel in the same circles as the Apatows, Hanks, Spielbergs, etc. But that's really true of any field. I think the ones that whine about it are the ones that *know* without their parents, they'd have no career. Wyatt Russell is a double nepo baby, but he was quite good in "Under the Banner of Heaven", but take Maude Apatow out of a role that's not specifically developed for her...not so sure how that would go.

[quote] Even Hollywood rags are now acknowledging that it’s a problem that’s gotten out of control due to the rise of streaming and social media. That gives me hope.

Yeah, streaming shows have helped some of the nepo babies. Netflix's 13 Reasons Why played a part in Sosie Bacon becoming a bit more well known. She had some acting credits prior to that show. But, the popularity of 13 Reasons Why helped her. Julie Louis Dreyfus' son Charlie Hall has been on several streaming shows. There's also Andrew McCarthy's son Sam who was on Dead To Me.

Goes back a while ago.

Miller was born in Los Angeles, California, to Beatrice (née Ammidown), a costume designer, publicist, and journalist, and Mark Miller, a television actor and producer

Her mother was the goddaughter of businessman Aristotle Onassis and an editor of Harper's Bazaar

They really tried with this one, but it didn't pan out

And why isn't Jennifer Anniston considered a nepo baby?

R68 I think part of the reason she doesn't get the nepo baby label is because her dad was a soap actor and the only people who knew he was were soap viewers and soap mag journalists.

And most actors don't like bring up any sort of a soap past.

Ben Stiller?

Excuse me. Her father had a long standing professional relationship with NBC. The same network that aired Friends.

Being a nepo baby doesn't mean you don't deserve it, but it doesn't mean that you do.

It's just a way in and doesn't guarantee anything.

Ask Tori Spelling, Montana Fishburne and Steven Spielbergs daughter who fell in with a grifter.

This is a very funny bit of nepotism.

Born into the Gyllenhaal family, he is the son of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner; his older sister is actress Maggie Gyllenhaal. He began acting as a child, making his acting debut in City Slickers

Paywall? You cunts!

Lee Bouvier as Laura

Some of these are just retarded. Being a set constructor or a voice actor or a hairstylist for some B List musician is NOT nepotism at all, good fucking lord.

And yes, it’s a stretch at best to consider people like Lens “nepotism” products. Being rich or having parents in a creative field is not nepotism. As someone said above, her parents were “hip” NYC artists, not showrunners or actors or writers. Nepotism by definition is your parents or family members getting you a job/opportunity in their field. It happens in every single field.

[quote] I think that Michael Douglas, Jane Fonda and Liza Minnelli would've succeeded in show business no matter what, even if they'd been raised on a farm in Iowa. They were all too uniquely talented to not end up as stars.

Jane Fonda and Liza, yes. And also Mia Farrow and Jeff Bridges.

But not Michael Douglas. He does not bring that much to the table--sorry. He was kind of handsome, and he's intense, but so were lots of guys who did not have his connections.

OP, please. Nepotism happens anywhere.

I have an Oscar and a Golden globe but unfortunately I didn't inherit my father's directing ability.

But I think nepotism can only get you so far. If you don't have real talent and the public doesn't like you, you'll end up where you started.

r23 r77 Archived article.

[bold] The One Where New York Magazine Tries To Channel Old School Gawker And Fails Miserably [/bold]

"Nepo Schools"? Really? And then lists the two West Side LA schools that are hardest to get into? (They probably could have done something on Brentwood School too if they'd been bothered.)

All other things being equal, someone whose parents were in the industry is probably going to do a better job, at least initially. This is true no matter what business you are talking about. Someone who grew up hearing about it - whether it’s construction, dentistry, finance, law medicine, real estate, or acting - is going to have a better idea of what’s involved and what’s expected at the entry level. It just seems more egregiously unfair when it’s an industry where the perception is that there is a tremendous about of luck involved.

So I don’t really hold it against acting offspring when they have some success (but some cases seem worse than others). Especially since so much of it is about money, not just nepotism. If your parents pay for your nose job, personal trainer, clothes, hair, and LA apartment then you are way ahead of the people from poor families. That’s not “fair” either and it’s also why, in other industries, unpaid or ridiculously low paid internships are sometimes frowned on (as they should be).

But the modeling nepo babies are a whole different story. You are supposed to be tall and beautiful, or at least attractive and strikingly unique. The Depp offspring and Kate Moss’s daughter are ridiculous as models. The Hadid sisters might be models, but certainly would not have achieved the level of success they have without nepotism.

Waiting for one of the nepo babies to bitch and respond

Don't respond. People are already salty and anything you say will piss people off further!

The Basic sisters and Kendall Jenner are absolute jokes as "models".

Thank you r85!!

The article at r85 is well done (although it mistakenly says Jane Fonda hit it big in Europe before she did in the US). It points out that it's hard to dispute some nepo babies genuinely deserved to be stars in their own right (like Fonda or Minnelli or Laura Dern), while others get good roles at first but hen pretty much disappear because they can't sustain (Katharine Houghton, Kate Hepburn's niece in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" or Bette Davis' daughter B. D. Hyman in "Whatever Happened to baby Jane?").

The ones who really amaze me are the ones who are no good but keep getting work, like Meryl's daughters. And as someone else said above, the most amazing of all are the ones who get work as models but can't do it right, since you INSTANTLY can tell whether a model knows how to walk or not and hold the camera's eye or not, and yet still get work.

I thought Kendall Jenner was cute but she turned into a blow up doll with too much plastic surgery

Lily Collins...how did that twat get 2 undeserved Golden Globe nominations?

R48, early in her career Jolie got a ton of press for being Jon Voigt's daughter.

Skip Bittman

Who would Ryan Murphy cast in his shows? Maybe actors with talent. Nope, not going to happen.

Murphy hires young cock on his shows

(R98) And cunts like Billie Lourds.

Goldie wasn't their only showbiz parent! What about me?

The Willis girls have the looks and talent to make it completely on their own.

Who was the first nepotism baby of Hollywood? Douglas Fairbanks Jr?

[quote]Who would Ryan Murphy cast in his shows? Maybe actors with talent. Nope, not going to happen.

Lily Rabe has some talent. But, the most of the nepo babies on his shows are awful.

R92 She was more well regarded in Europe than the States (where she was seen as a horrifically bad actress) for a brief period - 1963-1965 because of her relationship with Roger Vadim - then she hit it very big with Cat Ballou.

Jane Fonda was nominated for a Tony for her first performance on Broadway in 1960.

[quote] Goldie wasn't their only showbiz parent!

"Their"? Is Kate Hudson non-binary?

Kate and Oliver Hudson, R106.

(And while we’re on the subject, Goldie and also has Wyatt Russell with Kurt).

[quote]Who was the first nepotism baby of Hollywood? Douglas Fairbanks Jr?

It certainly wasn't me!

Nepo babies that Ryan Murphy has cast in his shows:

Emma Roberts

Lily Rabe

Billie Lourde

Grace Gummer

Sophie Von Haselberg

Kaia Gerber

Chaz Bono

Gwyneth Paltrow

Ben Platt

I'm surprised that he hasn't cast Jason Gould in anything.

[quote] The ones who really amaze me are the ones who are no good but keep getting work, like Meryl's daughters.

Honestly thought Grace was pretty good on Newsroom. Off the record.

I’m kind of shocked a major publication is calling this out. I guess it’s gotten to the point of too hard to ignore. I guess congrats to Austin Butler, Zendaya and Margo Robbie for coming up the hard way (younger generation).

Even Barbra herself could only get Jason cast in two of her movies...

The Nepo thing has changed. People like Laura Dern and Drew Barrymore and Tracee Ellis Ross. They're all pushing or over 50. People like them have long track records and have proven themselves. Says me.

There seems to be more nepo people in the social media age. We went from a handful of elite 90s supermodels people could name to every celeb brat taking over the runways in the current day. Social media provides so many with a platform and we love to interrogate power and privilege there. But there's also the 2 americas thing where it feels harder to break in. Like Hollywood power is calcifying. The Guardian recently tracked a substantial decline in people in the arts from working class. backgrounds.

This feels like anti-white hatred despite the mention of a few black starlets

R86 If they really wanted to try for old school gawker they should have gone all the way with an inflammatory title like " Celebs' Scumbag Children Have Stolen 90 Percent of The Jobs In Hollywood..... But People Magazine Says It's Okay Because Their Parents Are Super Talented " or " Emma Roberts Ugly Baby Just Bagged A Gerber Contract"

I know that you are one R99, but why is Billie Lourd a cunt?

The signature should read go big or go home. Oops.

Who the fuck is saying Julia Roberts is where she is because of nepotism. Her brother was a b-lister at best. Julia started her career is small projects as a supporting character. And then she became the biggest superstar ever. It ain't got anything to do with nepotism, fuckers.

I think the offsprings who can’t act and aren’t good looking are called nepo babies. Lily Rose Depp can fight the label all she wants but she knows its the truth. I can understand producers casting her in a project or two to get publicity but after a while I mean why is she still getting work. Nobody cares about her and she’s not remotely attractive or talented.

It still helps, R118, and I think Eric Roberts was pretty big for a time. It’s like the Wahlbergs. Donnie wasn’t huge, but big enough to open doors to the right people for Mark.

I'm hoping a lot of the current crop of nepo babies do a movie or two a series or two and then get pushed the hell out for lack of talent! There have to be more celebrity spawn in the mix than ever before.

Here's a nice clip I enjoyed from a comment on the article

[quote] Imagine Kate Hudson for example. A friendly, sweet woman for sure. But a terrible actress with no range, yet here she is worth over 100 million dollars going from one bomb of a film to the next. Having parents such as Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russel didn't hurt. Don't get me started on Gwyneth Paltrow.

[quote] The Nepo thing has changed. People like Laura Dern and Drew Barrymore and Tracee Ellis Ross. They're all pushing or over 50. People like them have long track records and have proven themselves. Says me.

I don't think anyone here has said it's impossible for a nepo baby to be genuinely good. Even the article OP cites mentions that both Laura Dern and Tracee Ellis Ross have genuine talent and fully deserve their fame.

But for every Laura Dern in show biz who deserved her lucky breaks, there are a dozen Sophie von Haselbergs or Louisa Jacobsons or Emma Robertses who did not.

You're right, R123. And maybe Drew isn't great it's just we've known her for so long and her lineage was distant.

It feels like there's more of this going on, right?

Emma Roberts, I'm sure she's nice, but she does seem totally bland and unmemorable thus far.

I’m in the minority here, but I think Paltrow is a good actress. It didn’t hurt that she dated Brad Pitt at his peak. Shady that she stole the Shakespeare in love role from Winona Ryder though.

Winona was her good friend too.

Winona was her good friend too.

R126: I agree I actually think she’s better than that overrated Julia Roberts. I think if given the right material Gwyneth can be OK.

More interesting and talented are male athletes. The sons of athletes are often endowed with dad's skills, even surpassing them but that could be with steroids.

Julia Roberts IS over-rated. There were DEFINITELY some doors opened for her by her brother Eric.

And yes, actually, brother Eric was a hot property for a few years and considered one of those described as the "next big thing" in Hollywood. Here's a 2018 article that discusses his rise/fall/ongoing career.

Are eric and Julia still estranged?

I have to say that Zoe Kravitz is one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen. Imo she's far more beautiful than her mother ever was (she's had quite a bit of work done though, which I wasn't aware of until recently). However, she is also offensively bland ... I just do not CARE about her AT ALL. It's remarkable for a woman to be so exquisitely, exotically beautiful yet totally forgettable. Maybe that lack of ...charisma? a spark? really has to do with having had it (too) easy in life, and getting everything handed to you (just a theory).

She's not that beautiful. She's OK, I wouldn't say beautiful. Most people probably agree, that's why r133.

Susan Strasberg. She was beautiful and I think she had talent, but her personal problems derailed her career in spite of her parents' unmatched industry connections.

The model thing is egregious. Lily Rose Deep is a midget with short, stumpy legs. Kate Moss's daughter is also short with an unremarkable face. Then you have Heidi Klum's boring daughter. Without their parents they'd be hard pressed to get cast in a Forever 21 campaign.

[quote]I guess they redeem themselves once they show a little talent

Good thing, cuz that's all I got.

R130, that’s true, but it’s genetics and training more than outright nepotism. Even the NBA is changing. Poor kids from the inner city could make it to the pros years ago. Now it’s sons of athletes or kids from solid middle/upper class families. A friend of mine son plays baseball, he’s so/so, but she hired a former pro to coach him and he made the HS team. Apparently that’s what parents do these days. Poor kids have very little chance to compete.

The kids of coaches definitely get jobs as coaches though. There is a lot of that in the NFL. Madonna, Goldie Hahn, Julie Louis Dreyfus, even Beckham’s kid couldn’t cut it in sports though, so even celebs can’t buy their kids way onto sports teams if they ultimately don’t have talent.

It's not about genetics - many nepo babies like Sosie Bacon, Maude Apatow and Wyatt Russell are plain to homely - or even connections really. It's about MONEY. They have access to plastic surgeons, photographers, styilsts, acting coaches, top hair dressers and famous mommy's/daddy's bankrolling their LA apartment for however long it takes a casting director to pause, squint at their professionally developed headshot and ask, "Bacon? Any relation to Kevin?..."

R125 she's a known cunt

A couple people above mentioned dysfunction and how that fuels a more interesting edge to actors - what’s interesting though is that first well known “second generation” of Hollywood actors - Liza Minnelli, Jane Fonda, and then Carrie Fisher and of course Drew Barrymore - all came from supremely fucked up families, to the point where many if not most would not want to trade places with them, in spite of all their connections and money. Hollywood families, of course, are known for being the most fucked up and dysfunctional.

This latest lot, however, even if their parents ended up divorcing, just seem like your basic overindulged kids (to the nth degree) that you would see at any rich private school, and had their every want catered to. Most probably has extremely “loving and supportive” parents who indulged their every whim.

So that’s a generational difference right there.

Some of their careers never take off

If it weren't for nepotism, nobody would have heard our music.

James and Pablo Dylan

One thing to know is that this article is only the centerpiece of many different pieces that appear in the New York Magazine. I checked out a digital copy from my library to get access to all of them.

There’s the mention of Angelica Huston and others like Jane Fonda and Michael Douglas, but no discussion of Candice Bergen, who I feel would never have had the career and entree to Hollywood without nepotism and failing upwards from her first experiences. Maybe people feel sorry for her since her father obviously loved his dolls more than any child he could have had.

I cant believe they mentioned Billie Lourd but left out that her father is the head of CAA

Eric Roberts insisted his kid sister be hired for her first jobs.

Maude Apatow is incredibly average . If you're average, you need to be a pretty spectacular actor, or exude a certain charm/spark that draws people in. "Nepo baby", in this case, is an understatement.

r147 HE DIDN'T. STOP LYING YOU DIPSHIT

2022 has been Marlo Thomas' year...still milkin it.

R149 is disgusting.

What is wrong you.

Maude Apatow couldn't even deliver her lines on that silly Jergen's lotion commercial she did with her mother a few years ago! She was terrible. Of course, she went on to get more not less parts.

Most of Cynthia Nixon's personal assistants on the SATC re-boot crapfest, were nepotism hires. How do you think most of these PAs etc keep getting hired? Through connections. What dos it actually take to fetch someone coffee?

One woman was Cynthia's former campaign manager's daughter, she was hired as a 'fashion stylist'. This woman had little to no experience as a stylist. Cynthia even gave this young woman a non-speaking part in one of the episodes in the series.

I know someone who knows this young woman, the friend told me this woman is looking for any kind of fame. Problem is, she doesn't have any training whatsoever in any of the fields she's trying to pursue, she simply wants fame. Besides her Cynthia connection, she's fucked a few rich men, one was a British actor she lived with for over a year, he provided her zero connections, in fact he kept her hidden. Very few knew he even had a live-in GF at the time.

While at college, she fucked Julia Louis-Dreyfus musician son, another BF was the son of a famous very wealthy songwriter. Somehow none of this has provided this woman with the connections she so craves. Neither of her parents are famous in the least.

gratifying to see this discussed somewhat openly. Keep in mind, though, this story, like all celebrity driven press, was negotiated by publicists. There are a few, umm. what's the word.? VERY obvious nepotism benefactors whose very good publicists managed to keep their names out of the story. Everyone in this business has clients they are trying to please, and casting directors are no exception. When social media started to become a driver in the entertainment business, casting directors were thrown into a new environment where clients (producers, , directors were demanding people with buzz online: People became obsessed with this concept and hiring celebrity children seemed like an easy path to buzz. Again, nepotism has always been a big part of show business, but the internet really put gasoline on t.

From the article:

[quote] Despite suspicions, you don’t always know someone’s background. A while back, a young actress with a famous family but a common last name came in to read for her first lead role. “I had no idea who she was,” says the casting director. “I don’t know why I didn’t get the memo. From my vantage point, she won that job fair and square.” (The actress’s performance was widely acclaimed, and she became a major star.)

I am fairly sure I know the person who was the source of this quote: I love and respect this person but I have to say this is complete bullshit. EVERYONE knows who these kids are because agents, managers and publicists PUSH them like a rash on everyone. for example: If I see a submission with a note : THIS IS SO AND SO's DAUGHTER" from the agent and I don't call that person in, I will get a call from the agent saying " hey did you miss So and So? You know who she is right? " Instantly you are in the position of being the reason someone's little darling didn't get on a list for a role they don't even know they are being pitched heavily for. And it's bad business in casting to piss off celebrity actors by refusing to see their spawn.

The reason beneficiaries of nepotism get frustrated and angry like Maude Apatow is that THEY OFTEN HAVE NO IDEA HOW DESPERATELY HARD PEOPLE ARE WORKING to curry favor with them and thus their parents/uncles/ aunts etc.

To the person who said Fonda and Michael Douglas would have been stars no matter what.. again bullshit. It's not just a career its the KIND of career being a child of a celebrity positions you for: Even deserving recipients of nepotism (Fonda) benefit from options they wouldn't have without the name. Fonda could have come to NY with no family connections and ended up on a soap based on her looks and stayed there her whole career. No shame in that, but its maddening to me to see people think that this business is a meritocracy for actors.

Hopefully it will become fashionable again for casting directors to fight for and advocate for TALENT not just "media drivers" but just raw fucking talent. A colleague of mine literally stood in front of a directors car and refused to move until he agreed to see an actor for a role. I'd like to see more of that

And there are those like Brad pitt who came from nothing that had to date nepo babies with connections to the industry to get ahead because he was tired of working as an extra for 8 years

Has anyone made the cognitive leap that this may be part of the reason Hollywood is dying? I can imagine some of these entitled, untalented Nepo's arguing with writers about their money shot, till a project becomes a complete piece of shite.

As to the modeling. I'm a gay man, but would wants to look like Madonna's spawn or Moss's or Depp's? Frankly I've seen better things to hang a garment on the floor of a public bathroom. Do any money people clock how well this ugly turds sell clothes?

r133, I've seen the Kravitz/Momoa daughter in person last December, and she's is just as stunning. I expect that she will be getting in the business in a few years.

R132 yes. They make up every few years and then fall back into estrangement. Eric has a very hard time with her success. And yes Eric has famously mentioned many times he walked into his agency (William Morris at the time) and insisted that someone sign his sister ASAP. She had help. She just went on to usurp him so most people overlook it.

[quote]Nepotism happens in many other fields besides showbiz, especially in city and state government jobs, the police and fire departments and so many other fields, especially creative fields.

It's rampant in journalism, which makes stories like this amusing to me. You glance at the byline wondering if you're about to chuckle at the author's hubris.

The ones that get forgiven for being nepo babies are the ones who are genuinely photogenic or have star quality or talent. It's as simple as that.

I too think Gwyneth is a genuinely good actress, however I don't think she's photogenic enough to be on television. In fact I remember being in junior high and looking at a picture of her modeling for Estee Lauder on an advertisement at Macy's and me and my sister both agreed she's got a funny/weird looking face. Neither one of us knew she was related to famous people, we were young hicks in a small town before the internet took off and weren't savvy about Hollywood stuff. We just thought she had a weird jaw line and didn't understand why she was in movies with her lack of looks.

Kate Hudson gets a lot of flack because she is truly homely looking and unphotogenic, lost all youthful cuteness after her first baby and yet was given movie after movie.

Compared to Julia Roberts who is goofy looking as well, but strangely photogenic and has mega watt charisma.

Both nepo babies but one is far more deserving of stardom.

I understand why Julia get a pass for being a nepo baby but I don't understand why suburban housewife types still love her despite the origins of her marriage with Danny Moder. Jolie committed the same crime and women hate her.

Because Julia makes frauey movies women love and Angelina makes action films or depressing dramas.

Mia Farrow ish one of my closhesht and dearesht friendsh.

R102 - even before DF Jr. there was Constance and Joan Bennett, daughters of Richard Bennett, very popular early movie star. The sisters were in their first movie in 1916.

[quote]I understand why Julia get a pass for being a nepo baby but I don't understand why suburban housewife types still love her despite the origins of her marriage with Danny Moder. Jolie committed the same crime and women hate her.

Because no one knew Moder's wife while *everyone* knew Jennifer Anniston. Plus, whatever she did, Moder did not exactly seem like some great catch, though I'm honestly surprised they're still married.

Kate Hudson is not homely or unattractive, but she coasted for a long time off her manic-pixie dreamgirl turn in "Almost Famous", but she got old & other younger actresses came along. Plus, she just came across as such a messy slut, she failed to appeal to the romcom/frau fanbase

Julia Roberts was smart to marry someone who was not a star. Part of the earlier obsession the press had with her was she always was with celebrities like Lyle Lovett, Jason Patric, and Kiefer Sutherland, and of course being with them would get big headlines. She still got attention for marrying someone, but since he was a nobody, it wasn't that much.

[quote] Kate Hudson is not homely or unattractive

Ahahahaha!! Oh honey, Google pics of her without makeup and styled hair. It will give you a fright.

Untalented nepo babies have been around a long time, but they mostly get forgotten after their acting careers tank. Maureen Reagan, Diana Barrymore, Portland Mason...

No one would even remember Christina Crawford was ever on a soap opera if Joan hadn't absurdly (and drunkenly) taken her place while Christina was sick, creating a memorable sequence for "Mommie Dearest."

Not exactly Hollywood, but how Food Network has allowed Hunter Fieri to slide into programming is laughable. The kid is so awkward on camera (not to mention his awful facial hair). The Irwin kids at least have charisma.

Untalented fug Mayan Lopez needs to be called out on nepotism as well.

Stop pushing your family on us, Judd Apatow

Eric Roberts did indeed push Julia, but it was ICM who picked her up. He definitely tried to help her. Keep in mind that Julia might not have happened at all if she didn't have ( I believe) Boaty at ICM pushing her. If she was with a small agency.... different story..

Okay, this is definitely Dakota Johnson:

[quote]They once met with an aspiring actress who was the daughter of two movie stars. “There was something else that walked in the room with her,” they say. “Like, ‘My parents are famous, and I’m here because somebody told me to meet you.’ A lovely person but definitely a sense of entitlement. She left, and I was like, That person doesn’t excite me. The struggle isn’t there.” This is not always a deal-breaker. Afterward, the daughter booked the role that made her a household name.

But who is this?

[quote]A while back, a young actress with a famous family but a common last name came in to read for her first lead role. “I had no idea who she was,” says the casting director. “I don’t know why I didn’t get the memo. From my vantage point, she won that job fair and square.” (The actress’s performance was widely acclaimed, and she became a major star.)

The same sort of thinking also bled into the marriage world. In decades past, men would marry a secretary or someone in that kind of job. Today, you pretty much never see that; everyone is pretty evenly yoked. Doctors marry doctors or engineers or lawyers; they are not marrying nurses.

The movie industry also does not take chances on random people; you have to have someone in the business who can also draw people in, before they give you a chance. Basically, they don’t want to lose money if you turn out to be a dud; just like society at large doesn’t want to lose money and end up on the hook for decades worth of spousal support.

They didn't include my daughter here because they HATE Christians!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

This is the nepo baby’s credo: Try, and if at first you don’t succeed, remember you’re still a celebrity’s child, so try, try again. No one exemplifies this maxim better than Brooklyn Beckham — in the words of The Guardian’s Marina Hyde, a celebrity scion incapable of having “what other mortals might regard as amateur hobbies without considering them nascent professional empires.” At 23, Beckham has already cycled through aborted attempts to follow in his parents’ footsteps in the worlds of football and modeling. He next tried to become a professional photographer, releasing a coffee-table book full of out-of-focus pictures of elephants. Then he was a chef, a career he embarked upon despite possessing a level of culinary talent most commonly seen in BuzzFeed videos. While these endeavors have not been successful in the traditional sense, they have enabled him to amass 14.6 million followers on Instagram, where the only important metric is the one thing a nepo baby is assured of on the basis of their name: attention.

Vile and entitled cunt Lily Allen has weighed in on this.

Her and her brother Alfie Allen are the children of crank actor Keith Allen and producer Alison Owen, who was nominated for an Oscar for Elizabeth, which featured both of her children. Owen's most recent film How To Build A Girl featured Alfie in the lead male role and Lily in a cameo. Both children went to expensive private schools.

Alfie Allen is a decent actor but there are a lot of working class actors who went to their local schools who are better.

I find the name Maude Apatow so try-hard-let's-be-goofy-and-creative-and-unique I want to barf. It makes me hate the poor woman and I don't even know anything about her.

We often talk about the “It” factor, the otherworldly charisma that stars like Clara Bow exhibited in front of a camera. As the career of Chet Hanks makes abundantly clear, this quality is not guaranteed to be passed down through the generations.

[quote]Owen's most recent film How To Build A Girl featured Alfie in the lead male role

For whatever it's worth, I saw that movie while channel surfing and it featured none other than DL icon Beanie Feldstein butchering the hell out of British accent. It was genuinely embarrassing, so I don't think she was doing Alfie any favors.

While they're not really big in the US, Jude Law's kids are on the nepo gravy train in the UK

Why hasn't anyone mentioned me yet?

R182 - see R11 and R101.

R183 Yes, but they didn't mention me by name. How am I supposed to soar to stardom if they keep clumping me up with my sisters?

R174, I think the second person mentioned is Elizabeth Olsen. It specifies famous family instead of famous parents, and Olsen is a common enough name that you wouldn't automatically assume she is related to the twins. The movie is probably Martha Marcy May Marlene.

Would Jason Gould have gotten cast in The Prince of Tides had he not been Streisand's son?

Has Ben Platt given a rebuttal yet?

Platt has a face made for the very back row of the largest theatre on Broadway.

The bigger problem is not nepotism (which is eye-roll worthy but embedded in every institution) but an extreme lack of talent.

John.son. Is a common surname. Olsen, less so.

What makes the Maude Apatow nepo case so egregious is that we already had her mother foisted on us. We now have to have an undeserving wife’s spawn, too?

This is 40 was a piece of dog shit. 2.5 hours of the Apatow home movies.

No one pushes their family on the public like Judd Apatow

R180 I actually find Chet to be more attractive than Tom at the same age but he definitely suffers from arrested development and a lack of grit.

Does Melissa McCarthy’s husband count as a nepo baby?

R193 hot yes, but also a fucking idiot.

r154 & r173 here: Just want to feature this quote from the article

[quote] The casting director laments changes in the industry that have perhaps enabled the nepo babies’ rise. “I don’t think people know or understand what acting is anymore,” they say. With the advent of streaming and social media, the big screen no longer rules. “A lot of these people watch this crap, and they think that what they’re watching is good acting, and they mimic what that is,” the casting director says. “And it’s not good.”

Couldn't agree with this more: the most frustrating aspect of the business is becoming aware of how much effort it takes to get anyone on the radar of the power players in the biz. IF you don't have a famous set of parents or relatives, you need a really good, powerful agent OR a powerful ally in the industry who will talk about you. Jane Fonda told people in the business about Meryl Streep early in her career Sissy Spacek was Rip Torn's niece or something.. the list goes on and on..Everyone who works has someone who stuck their neck out on that person's behalf. Its a crowded insecure business and associations with big stars or big players has helped almost every actor. If you looked und er the hood, someone influential advocated for that person. NO MATTER HOW TALENTED, a person cannot build a career without sold business support

Very tribal. No different from any other industry.

R192 "But moooom, I'm twentyyyy"

Hated that fucking lotion commercial with the heat of a thousand suns!

The ones who whine about being called out are the ones with no talent.

If you actually have skill and put in the work, eventually people forget: ie, Laura Dern, JLC, RDJ

Hollywood children are fairly harmless, it's the nepotism children who end up in finance and politics who are to be shunned.

Elizabeth Olsen walks into an audition and someone doesn't think she's related to her famous sisters? Every major casting director knows that a large percentage of the actors they audition every day have strong family ties to show biz.

Elizabeth also looked like she could have been the third Olsen twin.

Elizabeth looks like both Olsen twins stacked up on each other

Maybe the twins shouldn’t have started smoking at 6 to stunt their grow?

R109, I remember reading some interview that Billie Lourd did. Basically, her dad Bryan Lourd and her were at a small, intimate dinner party that included Ryan Murphy who is a family friend.

Ryan is seated next to Billie and tells her he wants her to be in his show. Just as easy as that!

Elizabeth Olsen is much more attractive and talented than her troll doll sisters. It is hard to believe that she is related to them.

Maybe the casting director thought Elizabeth was Folger's Coffee Mrs Olsen's granddaughter

If there was no nepotism or if it was seriously addressed, there would undoubtedly be far better acting, writing, and directing on screen.

If nepotism did not exist, things would be done on time and correctly

[quote] that’s true, but it’s genetics and training more than outright nepotism

R138: As NBA general manager/head coach Frank Layden once famously said: "You can't teach height."

Angelica Huston's father, John Huston, was the son of Broadway/Hollywwod star Walter Huston, so he was a nepotism baby, too - though he turned it around and directed his father to an Academy Award. Broderick Crawford was the son of Helen Broderick, the character actress who was in the Astaire-Rogers movies. Hayley Mills and Juliet Mills were the daughters of John Mills. Jamie Lee Curtis is the daughter of Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis

Ultimate Nepo Babies. When Daddy is one of the richest men in the world, all you have to do is write checks to become "high-powered" movie producers.

They live in a bubble of comfort and luxury. The lack of depth to their work shows that clearly. Consider Kaia Gerber. She looks like she should be a modeling successful story. She’s gorgeous, has the height and pedigree but her eyes are dead. There is nothing going on in that head of hers. She’s fine at runway where looking like a zombie works.

R174 has it backwards. The second person is Dakota Johnson

Leni Klum, "supermodel" daughter of Heidi Klum, is a short (on the verge of "little person" status), plain looking girl who sticks her ass out at every photo shoot and is only a model because of her mother. I get she's not Hollywood, but Kaia Gerber was mentioned, so I thought I'd throw her in the ring.

I'm so tired of these kids of actors/actresses/models being accepted into "stardom" because of who their parents are. It's ridiculous.

Leni Klum is anything but plain. But definitely not model material.

R213: I'm not a big Jessica Chastain fan but I give her credit. She came from little to nothing and as a result there is a certain gravitas to her performances.

Bryce Dallas Howard is flying under the radar.

It seems like this is mostly an American/British thing. Or are we so insulated here in the U.S. that we don't know about the rest of the world?

Rumer Willis is pregnant - another *STAR* is on the way!

I don’t think it’s a case of the parents actively pushing, fighting, and wanting for their kids to become second generation talents. They probably don’t even give a shit about their kids. They know their kids don’t have the capacity and skills to do anything else with their lives. It’s more to do with the lack of institutional vanguards that allow nepotism to spread like a virus but at least this article is seemingly suggesting that nepotism has become a problem too big to ignore.

Have Ben's lawyers threatened to sue?

Julia and Emma Roberts are the cuntiest cunts to ever cunt .

No one gave a shit about Zoe Kravitz until The Batman came out. She was pretty but bland and now she looks like a blow up doll.

Uh uh - no one can besmirch our Lens!

(R116) I know one of the crew members that worked on American horror story. She does not speak to the crew. They are beneath her. It took her two hours to say one line. Typical Hollywood spoiled brat. It’s too bad because I really like Carrie Fisher. But when your father is head of CAA, I guess you can treat people however you want. If it wasn’t for Ryan Murphy she would have no work. Oh wait I forgot she had a cameo in Star Wars. My bad. I have a problem with actors that treat the crew badly. They work their ass off. 12-14 hour days. 6 days a week. Sorry if I offended president of the Billie lourds fan club.

Lily Allen is married to actor David Harbour. Seems like a strange coupling.

Bryce Dallas Howard directs some kick ass episodes in The Mandalorian. She's one of their best directors. She comes off genuinely humble in the behind the scenes segments too.

Will and Jada's kids own this thread.

That Heidi Klum daughter doesn’t look mixed race at all, but thankfully she didn’t get her dad’s skin condition.

R226 Wait a few years, I’m sure they’ll uncouple.

R229 Heidi was pregnant when they met. Her bio dad is some oligarch. Seal adopted her and is the bio dad of the rest.

[quote]Untalented nepo babies have been around a long time, but they mostly get forgotten after their acting careers tank.

Sometimes even during.

R214, the only part of the second anecdote that works is that Johnson is a very common name. Dakota never had a highly acclaimed performance that launched her into stardom. 50 Shades of Grey did, but she was panned for that. It was only her subsequent performances that showed she had some talent (and some people still dispute that).

R217, even Jessica Chastain gets accusations of being a nepo baby by people convinced she's Ron Howard's secret illegitimate daughter. Those rumors were eventually parodied in later seasons of Arrested Development by a character played by Isla Fisher.

Is that that Ron Howard doesn’t even know Chastain is his daughter? Is that the secret?

r229 "that skin condition" is lupus. And yes, she's lucky Seal wasn't her bio-Dad because it runs in families.

She's also lucky she's a white blonde girl with big tits

Bollywood nepo whose acting career eventually failed and who thought he was too good for the American industry.

Kobe Bryant's surviving widow and kids including the eldest daughter who's pushed as a model with met gala invites. I'm sorry the guy died tragically but it's a mash up of exploiting tragedy, fame whoring, idol worship, and bad taste.

Not a nepo hire, but a liar, Riz Ahmed, he conjured up an entire fake background. Ahmed always claimed he came from humble working class Wembley beginnings. It's all a lie, mostly to appeal to a certain segment of his South Asian audience.

When asked about what he did before working as an actor, he didn't have much to say, accept he worked for a few days as a telemarketer. Despite not working, his social media was loaded with photos of his constant travels. He also had a nice London apartment At the time, he didn't appear to get enough acting roles to sustain that lifestyle, let alone, cover regular bills. Surely, his rich parents were supporting him.

Riz is a descendent of Shah Muhammad Sulaiman, the first Muslim Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court during British colonial rule in India.

Ahmed claimed he got two scholarships, one to the prestigious Merchant Taylors' School and the other to Oxford. Not true, like his wealthy male cousins, who also attend both schools, these were legacy admissions.

Ahmed also claimed his father was a shipping broker, more like his father owns a few shipping companies. Now people are coming out of the woodwork to reveal his lies. At this point, it doesn't matter because he hasn't been hired for much of anything since he won the Oscar for his music video short. He's definitely being shunned in certain celebrity circles.

A few years ago, he claimed a college student's thesis was his original idea for a UK TV series he was working on. The entire idea was stolen. Production was shut down, he lied about the reason the series was taking so long, claiming he "wanted it to be perfect."

It appears Riz has an amazing team which is keeping so much away from the showbiz media. He had left CAA for Endeavor, not sure who he's with now.

Then, there are those pesky sexual assault allegations which go as far back as 2010. A few NY Times writers were interviewing the women he assaulted, somehow that was halted too.

except he worked for a few days as a telemarketer.

[quote]Not a nepo hire

Well fuck off to a different thread then

[quote]Well fuck off to a different thread then

Why don't you fuck off, [bold]CONTROL FREAK HALL MONITOR. [/bold]

Are you new to DL? Because it's a fact, most DL threads DO & WILL veer off topic.

The Varsity Blues scandal exposed these show folk have no connections or insight to the real monied world. For example, LA Doyenne Gwyneth went from Spence to UC freaking SB.

I don't think they can DO anything else. Half are in fact the descendent of beautiful trailer trash, no matter how much their jumped up parents want them to be lawyers and Senators, they don't have the material.

Dr. Dre's daughter Truly Young will probably end up being another Megan Ellison type, but as a director. Around the time when the Varsity Blues scandal hit, Dre posted on Instagram about how Truly got into USC's Film program on her own and how there was "no jail time" involved. That bit him in the ass because a bunch of people on social media and other sites pointed out that several years before Dre donated 70 million dollars to USC. He deleted the instagram post. Dre will probably give Truly some money to start some kind of production company and he will use other connections to help her get movie projects produced.

[quote] Because it's a fact, most DL threads DO & WILL veer off topic.

Yes, because of tedious cunts like you who try to drag them off-course to talk about their own particular obsessions because they know no-one gives a shit about them and wouldn't bother clicking on a thread about them

I feel like I've seen that "Riz Ahmed is a fraud" post about half a dozen times. It must be one obsessed loon because who cares about Riz Ahmed?

I would like someone to cover the nepotism cases working for the New York Times and in the print media more broadly.

I refuse to use the inane term "nepo baby," which to me suggests the entire world just discovered nepotism. Having attended an Ivy League school as an outsider to the East Coast circles, I've been aware of nepotism ever since. It's pervasive in all sectors of the arts and in academia.

R238, I forgot about her, but that was a big push. She was/is in magazines, attended the gala etc.. in NO way does she resemble a model.

Not sure if this was mentioned, but the Obama girls are huge nepo babies.

Once the parents start trotting them out when they’re teenagers like Salma Hyack, Laura Dern, Julia Roberts and so many others, you know where it’s headed.

The Obama girls will be the youngest members of Congress ever to be elected. One will run for Pres. for sure.

R248: Malia is a Hollywood sycophant just like mommy and daddy. She gets job as a writer for Donald Glover despite no apparent writing experience.

R250, well what else is she going to do? Intern for Uncle Joe or work in Corn distribution for ADM?

[post redacted because independent.co.uk thinks that links to their ridiculous rag are a bad thing. Somebody might want to tell them how the internet works. Or not. We don't really care. They do suck though. Our advice is that you should not click on the link and whatever you do, don't read their truly terrible articles.]

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Half sister to Kate Moss and OnlyFans model Lottie Moss is sick and tired of people complaining for why they aren’t rich and famous!

Well, if she's an OnlyFans "model"... she's doing the work.

I guess nepotism is the new racism and sexism in Hollywood.

R254: Sick and tired of people blaming nepotism for why they aren’t rich and famous.

[quote] I would like someone to cover the nepotism cases working for the New York Times and in the print media more broadly.

I agree, those nepotism cases need to be covered and called out.

R258 well never have I ever!

One thing I notice on young male actors is hands. Not all of them are nepo babies but unlike actors of yore, it's clear few of them have ever done any manual labor. They have delicate, un-manly hands.

[quote]This is 40 was a piece of dog shit. 2.5 hours of the Apatow home movies.

[quote] No one pushes their family on the public like Judd Apatow

I agree with this. Apatow annoys me more than Jordan Peele. Peele's movies are overrated, but he hasn't pushed his wife Chelsea Peretti onto the public like Apatow does with Leslie Mann and the brats.

What about Lori Harvey? What the fuck has she done except Micheal B. Jorden? Yet she gets coverage and covers of magazines and these gossip blogs cover her - on the payroll.

Iris Law gets tons of coverage as a 'model' but has none of the looks and charisma of her parents. She's fug fug.

It says something about Billie Lourd’s lack of talent that she is incredibly well connected and the only work she can get is bit parts from Ryan Murphy.

So boring and unappealing to watch.

I know I'll get shit for this but I think Billie is talented and she has a nice voice. She's just, again, like many nepo babies, not good looking or photogenic enough to be on screen. She has bad skin too, very aged looking.

Not only do we have to contend with Kaia Gerber, model, but Ryan Murphy also cast her in one of the AHS installments. She was awful, of course.

The gerber/ Crawford kids Presley and Kara both have the nastiest bitch faces I've ever seen. They just look like little shits.

Glenn Close's spawn Annie Starke was in few of episodes of Ratched. I guess Ryan Murphy decided to toss a bone to Glenn's spawn for once instead of Meryl's spawn.

I don't think RM has produced a show WITHOUT nepo spawn. And he usually finds the ones others wouldn't even think of hiring.

[quote]Iris Law gets tons of coverage as a 'model' but has none of the looks and charisma of her parents. She's fug fug.

Her antics are one of the DM's favorite obsessions; in recent pics, she's got very short/almost shaved hair, is extremely thin (even for a model) and looks sort of glassy eyed.

[quote]Iris Law gets tons of coverage as a 'model' but has none of the looks and charisma of her parents. She's fug fug.

Never seen this girl before, but you aren’t kidding. She’s homely AF.

Does she have a fat lip at r271?

Kamala Harris' stepdaughter is the utlimate nepo baby. There's no other explanation for her being a model.

r273, GOOD call, and 1000% agreed. This girl *IS* the epitome of homely. And I really have nothing against Kamala but when I saw her "model" daughter months ago and her equally shiteous sweater "creations," it damn near curdled the cream in my coffee.

R161 If she had kept her original nose, I think she would have aged better (she was born with a nose like her Mom. but had a nose job as a teen.)

I don’t really know her antics, but I find Iris Law pretty.

Who could forget Dinah Manoff?

They USED to be called scions of theatrical dynasties.

[Quote] What about Lori Harvey? What the fuck has she done except Micheal B. Jorden?

Oh honey

Isn’t there a pipeline from Harvard to Hollywood writers circles? Malia Obama might be that kind if nepo baby. Did she ever do any skit or humor writing while at school?

I’m sure Malia was lampooned relentlessly while at Harvard.

So "Chet Hanks" has become the byword for untalented offspring of a talented person. Poor thing.

Maya Hawke doesn't strike me as particularly talented or beauteous. She's okay on Stranger Things, but I doubt she's have gotten anywhere on her own.

Grace Van Dien, who played Crissy (the cheerleader) on last season's Stranger Things, is the daughter of Casper Van Dien and Carrie Mitchum (great granddaughter of Robert Mitchum). Step-daughter of Catherine Oxenberg.

R283 Maya Hawke is actually a decent musician.

I actually love this song.

R284 But would you have heard of her music if her parents weren't famous?

In 2019, while speaking with the New Yorker, she was asked about landing the leading role of Laurie in 1978's Halloween, which launched the Michael Myers franchise.

Jamie responded, "I auditioned many, many, many times. And then it was between me and one other woman, whose name I know but I will never say publicly. I’m sure the fact that I was Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis’s daughter, and that my mother had been in 'Psycho'—if you’re going to choose between this one and this one, choose the one whose mother was in 'Psycho,' because it will get some press for you."

She added, "I’m never going to pretend that I just got that on my own, like I’m just a little girl from nowhere getting it. Clearly, I had a leg up."

Anne Lockhart, daughter of June: nepo vs. nepo.

At least JLC unashamedly admits it. Even Ireland Baldwin has waffled a bit back and forth. Months ago she was pissed when someone asked her point blank what it felt like to not have to do anything because her parents were famous and money wasn't a worry. Her answer was that she did lots of things: run a dog rescue, has her own production company (writing/producing), modeling, opening a wine bar/boutique/coffee shop and starting her own brand (in conjunction with the wine bar/coffee shop venture). She got all huffy when someone pointed out she'd really not be able to do all this if she didn't have famous parents.

She missed the point completely: She'd be able to do none of (all of these things concurrently) in the "real world" (i.e. on her own) without being financially supported somehow.

Fast forward to present: she's now called out Lily Rose Depp recently for her lack of understanding about how nepotism has come into play in her life. Good for her for coming to realize she IS privileged and how she has benefited from it throughout her life.

In the 80s that freak show Ella would have been laughed at. She in NO way represents anything about that era.

Ella Emhoff looked kind of pretty with straightened hair in that DNC video. But, with curly hair she looks like a freak.

^^Woof.

R174, R154 seems to know who the source of this quote is:

[quote] Despite suspicions, you don’t always know someone’s background. A while back, a young actress with a famous family but a common last name came in to read for her first lead role. “I had no idea who she was,” says the casting director. “I don’t know why I didn’t get the memo. From my vantage point, she won that job fair and square.” (The actress’s performance was widely acclaimed, and she became a major star.)

[quote] I am fairly sure I know the person who was the source of this quote: I love and respect this person but I have to say this is complete bullshit.

She definitely looks better r290. But still no looker.

Pauline Chalamet. Kind of funny how she lands really her first big role after the success of her equally mediocre brother.

The article's writer says that Cindy Crawford's daughter looks just like Cindy and I disagree. Yes, you can tell they're mother and daughter, but I think Cindy was better-looking, had more visual verve (but sounded dumb when speaking). The daughter just looks blah, IMO.

Hunter Biden is the poster boy for the destructive effects of nepotism.

Sharon Stone might be right when she said you can only fuck your way to the middle. But some people don't even get that opportunity to reach the middle.

Getting your foot in the door, like these nepo babies do, is a huge deal.

I swear, DL is the ONLY place in the world where Ireland Baldwin’s name comes up on the daily. If Ireland didn’t already exist, DL would have needed to invent her.

[Quote] Maya Hawke doesn't strike me as particularly talented or beauteous. She's okay on Stranger Things, but I doubt she's have gotten anywhere on her own.

I do not get the hype for her or Do Revenge.

Kaia Gerber looks like a Cindy retread, but without the spark and sexiness of the original. Could she have been a model without Cindy? Yes. Would she have the kind of career and opportunities she has without it? Nope.

I do prefer the nepo beneficiaries who acknowledge it--JLC, Jane Fonda are two who know that it was a big career benefit. Without it, it just takes so much more talent, luck and hard work to get a foot inside the door.

The talented ones can admit they had a leg up.

The Brooklyn Beckhams of the world think they’re naturally fascinating.

More talented with a leg up:

Jennifer Jason Leigh

Martha Plimpton

Nicolas Cage

I feel sorry for Brooklyn Beckham. He got married to someone who doesn’t seem to respect him as a man. His mother was in a singing group, but allegedly can’t really sing. Now wants to be a chef. Everybody’s making fun of him.

There seems to be a large contingent of actresses who became be stars despite, or in spite of their absent actor fathers. I’m not sure they totally fit the Nepo baby model.

The winner for the ugliest, least talented spawn has to be Madonna's fat, ugly daughter. Who is, guess what? A 'model.'

[quote]Sick and tired of people blaming nepotism for why they aren’t rich and famous.

Huh? This bizarre quote from Lillie Moss makes no sense whatsoever.

Clearly this dizzy dolt doesn't know the meaning of nepotism. OnlyFans is exactly where this bimbo belongs.

The NY mag article includes a few other pages of nepotism connections, it mentions the annoying Ronson family.

Meryl's daughter Grace Gummer is married to musician/record producer Mark Ronson. That was news to me.

Also listed in the extra pages in the NY mag article, once again, is Lens Dunham.

Now we know why she was always relentlessly promoted in NY mag, her godfather is their art critic Jerry Saltz. Who, apparently, wields a lot of power at that magazine.

Ansel Elgort is pointedly absent from the article. He's at least an industry baby.

r303 He's moved on from chef, now he wants to be a bartender/cocktails guy

Is anyone able to share these extra articles?

When the f did vulture become a paywall anyway? Ugh

Re Maya Hawke, I first saw her in the BBC’s adaptation of Little Women with Emily Watson as Marmee and 3 other unknowns the March sisters.

Had no idea who she was but she was a very good Jo March.

If Hollywood is dying, or diminishing, maybe it's because all the huge real talents are being frozen out! How can they get a foot in the door, when the door is blocked by a crowd of useless rich kids.

My friend worked at Lionsgate with a bunch of people whose last name was DISNEY. Coincidence, I'm sure.

How are all these unknown Australians infiltrating Hollywood over the last decades if it’s all nepotism?

[quote]Ansel Elgort is pointedly absent from the article. He's at least an industry baby.

Ansel is listed on the extra pages in the print edition.

Why is NO ONE talking about Elizabeth Montgomery as a Nepo baby? Why is this being covered up, while Candice Bergen and Marlo Thomas have been exposed?

I know actors who got jobs originally through some seemingly slight connections. The connections weren't famous people, but were working actors or were in the business in some way> or they deliberately made friends at school with someone whose parent(s) were minor names.

So, basically, imagine how much more you would know about the business, or how many people you know, when your parent(s) are stars. Or at some higher level of the business than most people's parents are. You are also, usually, living where the business is. Growing up in a company town. So you already are there. Not coming from some far away home town with a few dollars to your name, not knowing a soul.

R309: His career really went down the shitter.

...Even if your famous or connected parents are estranged, or show you little to know help, you will probably still be cloer to being employed then some complete stranger/nonentity.

*no, not "know".

I don’t know the word cloer?

R322 If you can't figure out what the mistyped word was supposed to be, you must not be bright.

The almost complete list of nepo babies they put together. I'm sure others will spot more gaps, I noticed they didn't list Jack Dylan Grazer and his uncle Brian Grazer.

It's also odd they just have Jonah Platt's/Beanie Feldstein's dad listed as a tour accountant, when he's a founding partner of one of Hollywood's most powerful business management agencies

And for those who can't work it out - open the link in a new incognito/private browsing session to get around the paywall

Influencers (and producers) Alex and Matthieu Lange have a dad who's a Disney executive.

This thread reminds me of the 2006 documentary “Every Little Step,” which followed dancers auditioning for a revival “A Chorus Line.”

During most of the film, you’re rooting for the relatively unknown dancers competing for the role of Cassie…all talented and working their butts off.

Then, at the end…voila! Out of seemingly nowhere, it is announced that Charlotte D’Ambroise (daughter of the legendary Jacques D’Ambroise) will play Cassie!

As a viewer, the ending felt felt like a betrayal (Mary!)…but it sure drives home the unfairness of nepotism.

Had no idea that Mariska's mother was Jayne Mansfield.

Ice Cube's son is not amused by this article

Doesn't nepotism occur in every occupation? Sons take over from fathers in business, say a factory. Washington D.C. is rife with nepotism.

r328

[quote]Once the door was opened it was up to me to walk through it and thrive

LOL these dumb fucks really are too stupid to understand what they're saying

r329 Yes it does, and? What, because it exists in other industries we aren't allowed to talk about it happening in Hollywood? Fuck off Lily

Theresh no sush thing.

[quote] Doesn't nepotism occur in every occupation? Sons take over from fathers in business, say a factory. Washington D.C. is rife with nepotism.

Yes, it does. But this type of nepotism (modeling, acting, stuff in the public eye) is obvious to people (like us) who consume media.

It's also a pretty person on pretty person crime. The pretty nobodies who want to make it on merit or by sucking dick are resentful of the pretty nepo babies who walk in the door just because of their parents.

[quote]Doesn't nepotism occur in every occupation? Sons take over from fathers in business, say a factory. Washington D.C. is rife with nepotism.

Acting and performing used to be professions where people who weren't related to anyone had more of a shot. Yes, even back in the day, many people had an uncle who knew someone in the casting office. And there were stars like Alice Brady whose father was a Broadway producer. But a lot of the big stars of the past came from humble beginnings, all over the country or the world, or families not connected to show business.

R329, it’s less of a problem in other aspects of life because most professions require, at best, competency. But great art requires much more, and great artists tend to happen out of nowhere. If you limit the arts to wealthy “legacy admissions,” you are just not going to get great creative work.

R334 And of course you're going to get a narrow, self-perpetuating viewpoint.

Related to this, I read an article a few years ago about how few actors and others in film and theatre in the UK come from the working class anymore. James McAvoy was interviewed about how he is in the minority, in that way. So many of the creative people in the field are from the Oxford-Cambridge class - which was not the case years ago. The article talked about how this is reflected in the content of British theatre, movies, and TV.

Innovation and excellence in the arts - particularly music and sometimes acting - requires a level of life experience and insight that is difficult to gain as a rich kid that has their every whim catered to since birth.

Hence, the quality of talent suffers when any art-related industry is overrun by nepo kids.

Every industry that relies on filling roles based on tribal identity suffers from a lack of creativity and accountability.

"What teen sleeps through their phone ringing off the hook?"

Nepotism doesn't mean that a career is handed to you even if you're a lazy piece of shit. Nepotism in Hollywood means that your work will get noticed, while the work of a more-talented outsider will not!

And that's one difference between the studio system of the early 20th century and the free-for all we've seen since, the studios had talent scouts who went out and found actors with potential, and coaches to develop those young actors into movie stars. Since then it's been a bit of a mob scene, with every wannabe trying to charge through the same narrow door at once, and the Hollywood Powers That Be have stopped even looking in that direction, they're only looking at the VIP private entrance where the rich kids are being escorted in. That is so fucking lazy, the real talent is out there but it takes effort to look for it, effort nobody there seems willing to make.

It means doors are open to you that are inaccessible for others without a tribal identity.

"Tribal identity" is the current right-wing code for anti-semitism. Please join me in earning R337 and R339 a red tag.

I'm almost certain Lottie Moss isn't Jewish, nor are the Hadids, nor Julia, Eric's little sister Roberts, nor the Mara sisters nor Dakota, Melanie Griffiths daughter, Jackson.

But do carry on.

You have a gift for reading minds in addition to being a raging cunt.

Who is Pauline Chalet?

R342: Ratboy's equally mediocre sister.

Eve hewson ( Bono' s sprog) is now complaining that the lady at nymag has benefited from nepotism too. While that may be true, Hewson is still an obnoxious cunt.

The dumb Hewson cunt wasn't even featured in the article and she is having a meltdown. Stupid little brat. Her dad should feed her to all the starving orphans he says he cares about.

It's not enough for our 1% overlords to own everything, they want to want to pick our movie stars. Can't we have one thing for ourselves?

They have always chosen their movie stars, typically someone who is related to them or someone they fucked or both.

There are no movie stars anymore.

Rosemary and Betty became entertainers, whereas Nick became a newsman and television broadcaster (some of her children, including Miguel Ferrer and Rafael Ferrer, and her nephew, George Clooney, also became respected actors and entertainers).

No one ever mention Huey, Duey and Luey. The Duck triplet nephews of Donald Duck.

I work in K-12 education and we also have nepotism/favoritism. When positions are advertised, it’s routine for people to call and ask if it’s a real opening or just one being advertised for legal purposes. They’re usually given to someone’s grandchild, who just hit the 5 year mark. Administrators must have 5 years teaching experience. Or some friend they owe a favor to or a friend’s spouse.

Love all these spoiled brats getting huffy about the truth

Mara is the great-granddaughter of both New York Giants founder Tim Mara and Pittsburgh Steelers founder Art Rooney, Sr., as well as of Kathleen McNulty Rooney.

Her father, Timothy Christopher Mara, is the senior vice president of player personnel for the New York Giants, and her mother, Kathleen McNulty (née Rooney), is a part-time real estate agent.

She is the third of four children: she has an older brother, Daniel, an older sister, Kate, who is also an actress, and a younger brother, Conor.

Mara's father has Irish, German and French-Canadian ancestry, and her mother is of Irish and Italian descent.

Her Rooney ancestors originated in Newry, County Down.

Her paternal grandparents were Wellington Mara and Ann Mara. Wellington was the long-time co-owner of the Giants, who was succeeded in that position by his son (Rooney Mara's uncle), John Mara.

I knew it was only a matter of time before the print media got exposed. GOOD.

I feel I got Rooneyed by R353!

It's nice to see all these nepo brats throwing their toys out of the pram - it shows that deep down, they know they don't deserve anything. Their insecurities bubbling to the top.

r 54 WTF did The Weeknd do to his face?

[quote]Related to this, I read an article a few years ago about how few actors and others in film and theatre in the UK come from the working class anymore. James McAvoy was interviewed about how he is in the minority, in that way. So many of the creative people in the field are from the Oxford-Cambridge class - which was not the case years ago. The article talked about how this is reflected in the content of British theatre, movies, and TV.

There was a lot of chatter in Britain a few years ago when Eddie Redmayne and Tom Hiddleston became big stars - they attended Eton along with Dominic West and Damien Lewis, the same school Princes William and Harry went to, along with recent Prime Ministers David Cameron and Boris Johnson. Benedict Cumberbatch, Henry Cavill, Andrew Garfield, Tom Hardy, Olivia Colman, Carey Mulligan, Vanessa Kirby and Rosamund Pike all went to private schools.

McAvoy is a Scottish Nationalist and therefore is consumed by grievance and he believes there is a conspiracy to keep working class people in their place. He does come from a working class background and experienced some deprivation. Compare that to Ewan McGregor who went to a private school and is the nephew of actor Denis Lawson who was married to Sheila Gish. McGregor started his career with leading roles in British tv shows and movies.

Did the article mention actor and singer-songwriter Reeve Carney, who is currently on Broadway in Hadestown, is the great-nephew of Art Carney of Honeymooners fame?

Reeve Carney was born and raised in the West Village area of Manhattan with his brother Zane and sister Paris. He grew up in a family of musicians and actors: his father, John, was a songwriter for commercials, his mother, Marti, was a singer, actress and a jewelry designer and his great uncle was Academy Award-winning actor Art Carney.

In 1974 Art won the Academy Award for his performance as Harry Coombes, an elderly man going on the road with his pet cat, in Harry and Tonto.

Meryl Streep has a musician son, he goes by Henry Wolfe.

Henry wrote the 'Beatlesque' song for the Julia and Julia film. The song was pretty good.

R360 whatever happened to her douche LAX player nephew from UVA who beat someone up? Is he running some hedge fund now?

No one is ever gonna out-nepo the commie Redgraves.

Roy Redgrave

Michael Redgrave & Rachel Kempson

Vanessa Redgrave, Tony Richardson, Franco Nero, Carlo Nero

Natasha Richardson, Robert Fox, Liam Neeson, Micheál Richardson

Joely Richardson, Tim Bevan, Daisy Bevan

Corin Redgrave and Kika Markham

Lynn Redgrave, John Clark, Kelly Clark

Such musical beds, not only are there so many nepotism hires, all these kids of famous celebs are marrying each other.

Before her marriage to Mark Ronson, Meryl's daughter Grace Gummer, was secretly married to the son of actor David Strathairn, Ty Strathairn, they were married for only 42 days!

Grace and Tay met as kids in 1993 on the set of “The River Wild,” which starred her mom Meryl Streep and his dad David Strathairn.

Ty looks rather rough. He looks like Oliver Hudson, if Oliver was a junkie!

On September 4, 2021, after one year of darting, it was announced that Gummer married British-American musician and record producer Mark Ronson after one year of dating. On October 13, 2022, Gummer and Ronson announced that they are expecting their first child.

In 2002, Ronson began dating the actress-singer Rashida Jones, daughter of music producer Quincy Jones. They became engaged in March 2003. Their relationship ended approximately one year later.

On 3 September 2011, Ronson married French actress and singer Joséphine de La Baume, who had previously appeared in his music video for "The Bike Song". The divorce was finalized in October 2018.

What about the kids of very famous musicians?

Bruce Springsteen was mentioned, his son Sam is a New Jersey firefighter and his daughter Jessica is an equestrian. She's been riding since she was 4 and has won many jumping awards.

In 2021, Jessica Springsteen was selected in the US team to compete in equestrian at the 2020 Summer Olympics, which had been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She finished equal 31st in the qualifying round of the individual jumping, but only the top 30 advanced to the medals round.

On August 7, 2021 she was part of the U.S. team that won the silver medal in the Team jumping.

At least Bruce's kids aren't trying to be performers.

How about the sons and daughters of The Beatles?

Paul McCartney's photographer daughter, Mary McCartney, just directed a documentary about Abbey Road Studios. Mary has been making the talk show rounds talking about the film. She's very attractive and looks great for 53. Mary doesn't come across being as smug as Stella, the 'fashion designer'.

Stella McCartney, who IMO, is a terrible and pretentious fashion designer, would have never gotten where she is without being the daughter of Paul. There is nothing remarkable about her fashion designs. Plus, who is stupid enough to pay hundreds of dollars for pair of vinyl shoes?!

One of Mick Jagger's daughters is a model, Georgia Jagger, she was mentioned in the article, but not the Beatle kids.

Don't forget Julian and Sean Lennon. both musicians.

I never bought Stella McCartney as a legit fashion designer.

How about Sting's six kids? Why weren't they mentioned. Most of them are in show business.

Two of his daughters are actresses, Mickey Sumner (her mom is Trudie Styler) and Fuchsia Sumner.

Mickey seems to get the most work, she was last seen in the TV series. Snowpiercer and was in two films with Greta Gerwig. Fuschia vacations a lot and poses in expensive clothes at her IG. Not sure what she does, but it sure isn't acting. Fuchsia is now 40. Fuchsia looks exactly like her mother, Irish actress Frances Tomelty, Sting's first wife.

Sting's lesbian daughter Eliot Sumner is a singer and bassist. Eliot is actually quite good, her voice actually sounds a lot like Sting's.

Sting's eldest child, a son, Joe is also a singer-musician.

The two youngest sons Jake and Giacomo tried modeling, last I heard they were trying to be filmmakers.

[quote]he believes there is a conspiracy to keep working class people in their place

It's not a conspiracy though, is it? The entire British state is built in such a way to ensure limited social mobility. So to the point about actors - look at the way arts funding in schools has been decimated. Of course that doesn't impact the middle classes who go private. Do you really think a kid going to a comprehensive in Liverpool is going to have the same opportunities as a kid going to a private school in the home counties?

What of the Bob Geldolf’s offspring, I think he even adopted one who was a bastard the mother had during an affair with someone else?

[quote]It's not a conspiracy though, is it? The entire British state is built in such a way to ensure limited social mobility. So to the point about actors - look at the way arts funding in schools has been decimated. Of course that doesn't impact the middle classes who go private. Do you really think a kid going to a comprehensive in Liverpool is going to have the same opportunities as a kid going to a private school in the home counties?

As it happens Jodie Comer went to a comprehensive school in Liverpool.

But no, it's not a conspiracy, it's laziness and indifference. People in positions of authority are not deliberately trying to keep working class people in their place. They just think that in a free market the talent will rise to the top.

But there's also a lot of snobbery in the media (saturated by privately educated people) who would look at someone like Suranne Jones or Wunmi Mosaku and consider them to be "only" a tv actress. Naomi Ackie's already won a BAFTA but she's being treated as a newcomer for her performance as Whitney.

[quote]What of the Bob Geldolf’s offspring, I think he even adopted one who was a bastard the mother had during an affair with someone else?

That daughter, Tiger Lily, is the child of the late INXS singer Michael Hutchence.

"In the mid-1990s, Hutchence became romantically involved with Paula Yates. They met in 1985, during an interview for the British TV program, The Tube. Yates interviewed him again in 1994 for her Big Breakfast show, and their affair was soon uncovered by the British press.

At the time, Yates was married to The Boomtown Rats' lead singer and Live Aid organiser Bob Geldof. Media scrutiny was intense, and Hutchence assaulted a photographer who had followed them. Yates' separation from Geldof in February 1995 sparked a public and at times bitter custody battle over their daughters. Yates and Geldof divorced in May 1996.

On 22 July 1996, Yates gave birth to her daughter with Hutchence, Tiger Lily."

[quote]What of the Bob Geldolf’s offspring, I think he even adopted one who was a bastard the mother had during an affair with someone else?

That daughter, Tiger Lily, is the child of the late INXS singer Michael Hutchence.

"In the mid-1990s, Hutchence became romantically involved with Paula Yates. They met in 1985, during an interview for the British TV program, The Tube. Yates interviewed him again in 1994 for her Big Breakfast show, and their affair was soon uncovered by the British press.

At the time, Yates was married to The Boomtown Rats' lead singer and Live Aid organiser Bob Geldof. Media scrutiny was intense, and Hutchence assaulted a photographer who had followed them. Yates' separation from Geldof in February 1995 sparked a public and at times bitter custody battle over their daughters. Yates and Geldof divorced in May 1996.

On 22 July 1996, Yates gave birth to her daughter with Hutchence, Tiger Lily."

r370 Funny how you avoided answering the question and immediately resorted to whataboutism instead. And as for the idea working class actors are lazy - fuck you.

Sorry for the double post of singer Hutchence's daughter Tiger Lily. For some reason, I was getting a message that post wasn't loading.

[quote][R370] Funny how you avoided answering the question and immediately resorted to whataboutism instead. And as for the idea working class actors are lazy - fuck you.

At no point did I describe working class actors as lazy.

This is what I wrote:

[quote]But no, it's not a conspiracy, it's laziness and indifference. People in positions of authority are not deliberately trying to keep working class people in their place. They just think that in a free market the talent will rise to the top.

It's people in positions of authority who are lazy and indifferent to class issues, not the actors. They don't realise that in a profession where people aren't in continual employment having a wealthy family and industry connections is a huge benefit.

For some reason I thought he name was Fig or Peaches, maybe Kiwi, something fruity. Tiger Lily seems straight out of Peter Pan.

I won't link to The Guardian or The Observer, but that's where the original article about the drop in working-class people in the arts originated, under the title, "Huge decline of working class people in the arts reflects fall in wider society".

"Analysis of Office for National Statistics data found that 16.4% of creative workers born between 1953 and 1962 had a working-class background, but that had fallen to just 7.9% for those born four decades later."

"The finding raises questions about why years of attempts to make the arts more open and diverse have not had more impact – people who grew up in professional families were four times more likely than those with working-class parents to be in creative work, the study found."

"And with fewer film directors, authors or songwriters to describe the experience of growing up in a working-class household, some creatives fear their stories are being squeezed out of culture or confined to 'poverty porn'."

Here's a McAvoy interview in the Hollywood Reporter. He has a point, and also has given some of his own money away to educate working class drama students, I beleive.

[quote]For some reason I thought he name was Fig or Peaches, maybe Kiwi, something fruity. Tiger Lily seems straight out of Peter Pan.

Geldof's four daughters are/were Fifi, Peaches (she died in 2014), Tiger Lily, (the adopted daughter) and Pixie.

"On April 7 2014, Peaches Geldof was found dead at her home in Wrotham, Kent. The police found and seized drug paraphernalia at the house. Bob Geldof said in a statement: "We are beyond pain. She was the wildest, funniest, cleverest, wittiest and the most bonkers of all of us. We loved her and will cherish her forever."

Her widower Thomas Cohen said in a statement: "My beloved wife Peaches was adored by myself and her two sons Astala and Phaedra and I shall bring them up with their mother in their hearts every day."

"Peaches mom Paula Yates, died on September 17 2000, on Pixie's 10th birthday, Yates died at her home in Notting Hill at the age of 41 of a heroin overdose. The coroner ruled that it was not a suicide, but a result of "foolish and incautious" behaviour. Yates was discovered in the presence of her then-four-year-old daughter, Tiger Lily."

"A friend disclosed during the inquest that Yates had not taken illegal drugs for nearly two years, and the coroner, Paul Knapman, concluded that although the amount Yates had taken would not have killed an addict, as "an unsophisticated taker of heroin" Yates had no tolerance to the drug."

"Soon after Paula Yates's death, Geldof assumed foster custody of Tiger Lily so that she could be brought up with her three older half-sisters, Fifi, Peaches and Pixie. Her aunt, Tina Hutchence, the sister of Michael Hutchence, was denied permission by the judge to apply for Tiger Lily to live with her in California."

"In 2007, Geldof adopted Tiger Lily and changed her surname to Geldof; as of 2019, Tiger's legal name was Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily Hutchence Geldof."

So, Peaches fit the nepotism of drug addict and ODing?

Not much here about the Visual Arts world nepotism, would anyone really even bother with Kiki without who her father was?

From the article R377 mentions:

[quote]Actors such as Michael Sheen, Christopher Eccleston, Julie Hesmondhalgh and Julie Walters have said repeatedly in the last few years that finding a career in the creative industries has become much harder for people from traditionally working-class backgrounds.

[quote]The reality, says O’Brien is more complex. “The backdrop is this massive change in British society where there are fewer coal miners or manual labourers to have these kinds of working-class sons and daughters, so there are fewer working-class people coming through. And so the odds of people making it stay the same, even if the experience of the industry is really different.”

Britain is now a place where 50% of 18 year olds go to university. We import foreign workers to do "menial" jobs like service industry roles, carers, retail or production. So there are fewer authentically "common" people around.

Michael Sheen's father was an HR manager at a huge company - no way would that be considered a working class job now (if it ever was back then). That's Michael Sheen who only dates actresses, his current actress girlfriend is 5 years older than the aspiring actress daughter he had with Kate Beckinsale, who is herself the daughter of 2 well known British TV actors and who has a sister who is an actress. Sheen's cousin is also an actress.

Sheen's current project Staged is with David Tennant and his wife Georgia Tennant. Georgia is the daughter of actors Peter Davison and Sandra Dickinson. 2 of Tennant children are actors - one of them was in Kenneth Branagh's Belfast and the other was in the Game Of Thrones prequel.

r381 Is there any particular reason you fill your posts with non sequiturs? What does Sheen dating actresses have to do with anything?

Simple fact of the matter - and it is a fact - is that middle and upper class actors have a much easier time than working class actors.

Let’s not forget about the multi-talented Jonquil Dunham, Lens’s younger and better looking sister.

[quote] I work in K-12 education and we also have nepotism/favoritism. When positions are advertised, it’s routine for people to call and ask if it’s a real opening or just one being advertised for legal purposes. They’re usually given to someone’s grandchild, who just hit the 5 year mark. Administrators must have 5 years teaching experience. Or some friend they owe a favor to or a friend’s spouse.

This is quite common in a lot of rural school districts in New Mexico. I grew up in the northern part of the state and my town nepotism and cronyism was and still is rampant.

Your post reminds me of an incident I encountered when I was in grad school. When I was getting my master's in social work, I had to do internship at a nursing home. One day I was in the lobby area going over some notes and a young woman went up to front desk and told the receptionist that she had seen a job posting for records clerk on the state's unemployment website. The receptionist told her that the position was filled internally and that the nursing home had only advertised on the state UI site for legal reasons and that they had always planned to fill the position internally.

Speaking of nepo babies.... the son comes off as such a brat in this article. Whining about how much he hates Columbia because the people in his film class are so stupid. Love how the writer kept in that Alessandro Nivola called the son mid-interview and yelled at him for talking shit about Columbia.

Bono's daughter is such a brat - jesus christ.

There's the recent article on nepotism in NFL coaching. Nepotism and cronyism are always going to remain in the league and most NFL fans don't care unless the nepo hire is a shitty coach.

Nobody has mentioned the biggest nepo-baby: Jesus! God left an entire universe and people for him to lead! He didn't have any experience. Of course, he had to be tortured and die...but just like a nepo he was reborn due to his father influence! None of us get that perk! I can't believe they missed that one in the article. : )

What about Keith Coogan using his grandfather Jackie's immense pull in Hollywood to start his, admittedly stellar, career? Even changing his name to his grandfather's.

Keith Coogan is an example of nepotism that didn't pan out well in the long run. Pauley Shore is sort of in that category as well.

[quote] But no, it's not a conspiracy, it's laziness and indifference. People in positions of authority are not deliberately trying to keep working class people in their place. They just think that in a free market the talent will rise to the top.

This sounds like a naïve, if not disingenuous, interpretation of things.

At this point it would be easier to identify those performers who don't have family in the entertainment industry

Random Eric Roberts memory (about his massive ego, not nepotism):

I wish I could find a clip of this online (because it was really something), but no luck. Back in 2010, Nancy McKeon was featured on an episode of A&E's BIOGRAPHY. Several of Nancy's co-stars over the years (from FOL & other projects) were interviewed to sing her praises, including Roberts who co-starred with her in the tv movie "Love, Honor & Obey: The Last Mafia Marriage."

And at one point he said, very seriously (paraphrasing): "Nancy is a great actress. Now, what do I mean by that? *I* am a great actor...something-something-something...and she is every bit as talented as I am."

For real! (or it was something very close to that). My jaw hit the floor, and then I just burst out laughing. Eric Fucking Roberts?? I had no idea he was such a pompous, arrogant clown. Again, I wish I could find the episode online, because you had to see his whole demeanor. Dude thinks he's DeNiro or something.

‘OG Nepo Baby’ Jamie Lee Curtis says label is just meant to ‘diminish and denigrate and hurt’

I have been a professional actress since I was 19 years old so that makes me an OG Nepo Baby.

I've never understood, nor will I, what qualities got me hired that day, but since my first two lines on Quincy as a contract player at Universal Studios to this last spectacular creative year some 44 years later, there's not a day in my professional life that goes by without my being reminded that I am the daughter of movie stars.

The current conversation about nepo babies is just designed to try to diminish and denigrate and hurt.

For the record I have navigated 44 years with the advantages my associated and reflected fame brought me, I don't pretend there aren't any, that try to tell me that I have no value on my own.

It's curious how we immediately make assumptions and snide remarks that someone related to someone else who is famous in their field for their art, would somehow have no talent whatsoever.

I have come to learn that is simply not true.

I have suited up and shown up for all different kinds of work with thousands of thousands of people and every day I've tried to bring integrity and professionalism and love and community and art to my work.

I am not alone. There are many of us. Dedicated to our craft. Proud of our lineage. Strong in our belief in our right to exist. So, in these difficult days of so much rage in the world can we just try to find that quiet voice that the brilliant movie, EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE reminds us and as my friend @robreynoldsstudio reminds us,

NOTE TO SELF: BE KIND,

BE KIND;

BE KIND:

r385 Christ, what a little shit. And smells like shit too, apparently. What is it with actors, or wannabe actors, and BO?

And it's always funny when the nepo brats come out with the "my parents didn't want me to become an actor" part, and then it's revealed they helped them get parts, and encouraged them to get others. Jack Dylan Grazer insisted his parents fought against him becoming an actor - which is presumably the reason they sent him to a performing arts school.

Nepotism is common in all industries, it’s just more noticeable in show biz. The younger generation are jealous and cunty.

As if any "normal person" is going to feel any sympathy for these overpaid, already wealthy children of celebrities who are working in the entertainment industry whining about how "unkind" it is for people to point out nepotism. Look at every horrible thing happening to people around the world. And these brats are angry and sad and offended that some stupid magazine wrote a story about nepo babies?

I didn't even realize stupid Eve Hewson was related to Bono but she just broadcasted it by bitching about this article on all her social media and trolling NY Magazine on Instagram like a psycho.

The lack of perspective and sense of entitlement isn't surprising, but it's wild.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Why did Jamie Lee Curtis have to put "NOTE TO SELF: BE KIND."

If it's truly a note to herself, then she should keep it to herself. Otherwise, it sounds like a lecture.

People could retire on the money she made on her Activia yogurt commercials, so she should STFU.

R285, not sure. I was more noting that I do think Maya Hawke has talent as a musician. Of course, who her parents are made it infinitely easier for her in all walks of life.

But to directly answer your question: Yes, I do think her album is good enough to have made it on its own.

Evidence for my claim: When I first heard the song I linked, it was on a college radio station here in LA. I had zero idea who the band was. I actually Shazamed it. So she won me over only on the strength of the song itself. Nothing else. I assume that means a record executive might have been equally won over had her last name been Smith.

Also, and frankly, I might not have liked it as much if I knew her last name. I tend to be super harsh on nepo babies. (For reasons very clear to them!)

Because the only think record execs care about is the song

Agree, R392. We need to start a thread on those who had no Hollywood connections.

I disagree with a lot of these posters. It is definitely nepotism even if you're related to a lowly film crew person etc. The key to being a nepo baby is your parents know someone on the inside. Most everyone has no connection to these big monied jobs. Jenna Bush is now a publishing kingmaker???? Puke. I wonder how she got into the industry. It could be as simple as an aspiring writer is married to small time journalist for the NY Times. They are still going to get that chance that other people will never get. In the world of "Who You Know" its nepotism all the way. It's an insider's world.

I third the motion to start a thread on those with no Hollywood connections.

Eve Hewson seems like a psychotic little freak desperate for attention. The funniest part of this is that most people had no clue she was related to Bono. And the article that she's flipping out about never mentioned her. Her raging at the CEO is quite dumb. The CEO did not write the article.

[quote]Not much here about the Visual Arts world nepotism, would anyone really even bother with Kiki without who her father was?

I actually like Kiki’s work more than her father’s.

r406 Plus it undermines her whole argument; if she really believe nepotism plays no part in a career, how is the nepotism of the editor relevant?

Streep had no show biz connections but became a superstar very fast

Her daughters on the other hand have all been given lead or second lead parts with no discernible talent. They are all trust fund babies so they don’t even have to work.

R405, I agree that would be interesting. Unfortunately, we'll probably find out that some people who we thought didn't have connections actually did.

Even Glenn tried to promote her untalented daughter “Annie”

The absolute worst:

Jaden and Willow

Rumer Willis

Kate Hudson

Zoe Kravitz

Gwyneth Paltrow

By popular request, a thread about actors who aren't nepo babies.

Get ready for this one to be thrust upon us soon...

Ahhhh! My eyes. r414

The unfortunate result of old sperm.

R414, which parent does she look like? I'm not seeing any resemblance.

Yikes at the Beatty kid.

r414 Ella Beatty is represented by TWO talent agencies? Dad and Mom are pulling out all the stops.

Dad needed to pull out. Yikes.

The other thread about nonnepos is a bust. They have strangely narrowed the conversation to actors with a rags to riches back story. No one asked for that.

Drew Barrymore did not grown up wealthy but her family name was well known in the entertainment industry.

At age 10 or 11, Liv met Steven Tyler and suspected he was her father when she observed a resemblance between her and Tyler's daughter Mia.

When she asked her mother, the secret was revealed.

The truth about Tyler's paternity did not become public until 1991, when she changed her surname from Rundgren to Tyler, but kept Rundgren as a middle name.

Buell's stated reason for claiming that Rundgren was Liv's father was that Steven Tyler was too heavily addicted to drugs at the time of Liv's birth.Since learning the truth about her paternity, Liv and Steven have developed a close relationship.

They also have worked together professionally, once when she appeared in Aerosmith's music video for "Crazy" in 1993, and again when Aerosmith performed songs in the film Armageddon (1998), in which Liv starred.

T

R414 she looks like Shirley MacLaine (all the kids do actually) but with a bad nose job.

Bono is one of the most insufferable cunts on earth so I am not in the least bit surprised he raised one.

I wonder if Ella Beatty will have a better career than her cousin Sachi Parker.

Are we sure Ella Beatty isn't the late Ned Beatty's grand daughter!? lol

Sashi wrote her mother actively sabotaged her career.

The recently deceased Sonya Eddy was the daughter of Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald. Not many know this. It wasn't even mentioned in her obit.

It's pathetic of me, but a tiny piece of me is pleased that the actors on the cover and their families are going to be aware that this is what people think of them.

How is nepotism any different to the favoritism showed towards performers willing to suck dick to get a part?

Because sucking a mushroom dick covered with fish scales is work.

Its a pay to pay scheme and it is not industry specific.

R430, there's some basic vetting involved with the blow job test: you have to be willing to put in the effort and you have to pass some basic test for attractiveness. A lot of the nepo kids couldn't do either.

What R430 said. It wasn't "work" for Billie Lourd to go to a swank dinner party with her CAA agent father and be seated next to family friend, Ryan Murphy. That's nepotism.

^What R431 said

I don't know...I don't see how sucking some guy's dick makes one more worthy of a role. It should be based on talent and looks alone to me. Not to say nepo babies have that, but neither do a lot of people who made it.

[quote]Jaden and Willow

How do we know the Oscars slap wasn't staged? Because Will didn't cast Jaden in it.

(thanks to Popbitch)

People who use sex to get roles usually don't get a lot of second chances if they flop the first time. One of the points the article makes is that talentless nepo kids seem to get repeated opportunities.

Worthiness and talent are minor considerations.

People hire their own family or friends or hookups first and this is not industry specific.

R225 is full of shit.

R225/R439, if I recall correctly, didn't even Carrie describe Billie as a being a spoiled brat in one of her books?

Sure, maybe she grew out of it. But it might be hard considering her elite childhood in Hollywood.

Trying to remember Zoe Kravitz on Big Little Lies. Maybe her character doesn't have much to do. She has her parents looks but is inscrutable. Maybe there's no there there.

Stella McCartney isn't a great fashion designer but she has ideas and what must be a good staff. Her line has a point of view: fun, sporty. It has to be the most ethical of the LVHM brands. (insert your own joke). She has the whole vegetarian leather thing from her family's vegetarianism so she's ahead of the curve. She's no Willi Smith but she's more believable in an adjacent creative field than the Lennon boys are with music.

Who the fuck is Ewe Hewson?

Fucking on the casting couch at least requires some effort and ambition in the first place.

You can’t make this shit up….

I honestly feel sorry for the Willis girls. It doesn't matter that their parents are famous. No amount of money in the world could make up for the torture of having to wake up and see those faces staring back in the mirror every single day.

R445, it really pays to be friends with Ryan Murphy.

Eve Hewson is Bono's daughter. She's an actress in desperate need of a nose job, her legs look like a midget's and she's about two feet tall but she's pretty regardless. She's got a snotty attitude too.

Eve Hewson can act - she’s not Meryl Streep, but she’s ok - and is frequently employed so her whining about the nepobaby jokes makes her look pathetic and desperate for PR.

443 Eve Hewson is a massive bitch with a chip the size of the grand canyon on her shoulder. And no talent. Bono is her father.

I remember seeing Hewson is some Netflix show awhile who where she played one of the 3 leads. I thought it was odd because while her acting was fine, she didn’t seem beautiful or charismatic enough for the part. When I googled and saw she was Bono’s daughter - it made a lot more sense.

Henson was fine but forgettable playing the ingenue nurse on The Knick.

R385 That interview with Sam Nivola made me laugh- what a brat! Lol. He’s not even that cute. I thought his dad was adorable in Jurassic Park III.

Why doesn’t he transfer to NYU if Columbia is not on his level? Probably because he can’t get in.

R452 I'm not that forgettable cunt!

this is r154 writing again here: Just want to jump in to reiterate that benefiting from nepotism doesn't mean you aren't worthy or talented. Jamie Lee Curtis (LOVE her) feels diminished by the discussion of nepotism in the entertainment business, yet what she fails to consider are the many talented people who are diminished BY THE BUSINESS because they don't live in "reflected fame" Sadly, talent doesn't rise to the top in this business without a strong management team making that happen. Look, I do respect the fact that Meryl's youngest daughter trained at Yale and Beatty Bening's daughter did the 4 years at Julliard. I really respect and appreciate that BUT be aware that both of the actresses were represented by CAA before they graduated because CAA knows they can market them and use their familial connections to make money. Period. Would the world's most powerful agency have jumped to rep them if they had different parents? Unequivocally, the answer is NO. I believe Jamie Lee and others are genuine in feeling diminished but thems the breaks. I don't want a business that never had Fonda or Redgrave in it, but that was a different era.

[quote]Look, I do respect the fact that Meryl's youngest daughter trained at Yale and Beatty Bening's daughter did the 4 years at Julliard. I really respect and appreciate that BUT be aware that both of the actresses were represented by CAA before they graduated because CAA knows they can market them and use their familial connections to make money.

Meryl's daughter getting into Yale is its own case of nepotism, seeing as M is an alum herself.

R385 Yuck. What an absolute little shit Sam Nivola is. Snot nosed little brat. I'm sure he fancies himself a genius.

Let's face it, Ella Beatty got into Julliard because of who her parents were, same with Meryl's at Yale. Remember Bill Macy's daughter being part of the Varsity Blues scandal. She got into Carnegie Mellon. Just in case it sounds like I'm being really mean, keep in mind that these programs accept tiny numbers. CM accepts six girls into its drama program and, these days, you can expect that half are going to be WOC, while most of the applicants will be white girls. So the daughter who was too dumb to take her own SATs is somehow a brilliant enough actress that she's one out of a thousand. Similar story with Ella Beatty.

The privileged like to hold on to their privileges. Now, maybe a higher percentage of show-biz brats have the talent and looks to succeed in show biz compared to the general population, but it's not even close to the actual ratios.

I'm also kind of amused about how touchy the nepo crowd is about discussing this particular kind of privilege when you know just how happy they were to chirp about BLM and White Privilege. Nepo-privilege, on the other hand, is striking a little too close to home.

Good for Gen Z for calling them out.

Some of these nepo babies do have some talent. It's just that lots of people have some talent.

The person upthread mentions some nepo kid whose music he liked before he knew who it was. Nepo kids who go into music have access to producers, musicians, studio engineers and all the rest who can make even basic songs and relatively weak voices sound a lot better. Same with nepo actors who get good agents and have good directors.

Curtis' tweet IS a lecture, and not a particularly well-argued one. The current debate is not primarily about work ethic, professionalism, or even talent: it's about opportunity and access.

Ella Beatty seems insufferable. So many selfies.

that is exactly what it is. Those opportunities are reserved for industry insiders, talent and even good looks? are an after thought.

Garry Marshall was famously known for employing his family members -- both sisters (his "other" sister, Ronny, was an associate/coordinating producer on nearly all his projects), as well as his kids. But nobody was screaming "Neoptism!" back then. He was merely considered a very loyal guy, looking out for his family & friends, first. (he worked with the same people over & over).

And he also had a sense of humor about it. His younger daughter, Kathi, had bit parts in every one of his movies (and a couple of Penny's) -- most notably as the nearly-silent secretary in the Princess Diaries films. Her character was named Charlotte "Kutaway"....which is fricken hilarious! He certainly could have cast her in larger roles, if he'd wanted to, but he didn't.

R460 I think everyone here loves Jamie Lee Curtis. Ultimately, she is a good egg. We can love her and see she is also incredibly sanctimonious in that Meghan Markle-ish way that is both well-meaningly super-earnest and embarrassingly pompous.

JLC spent her life in the California bubble. Like when she was playing lady of the manor to Ana De Armas on set and was all “you speaka da English?”

[quote]Nepotism is common in all industries, it’s just more noticeable in show biz. The younger generation are jealous and cunty.

R397 The difference is show business is completely unpredictable. You can get a degree in some profession and get a job based on your degree, or you can get an entry level position in some company. You work fairly regular hours, get promoted over time. You can at least keep the job. This is nothing like being a performer. With no guarantees of anything in show business, nepotism is one of the few major advantages you can have in finding or keeping jobs.

Nepotism is how you get the job, not how you achieve fame. Some of these opportunities are restricted to insiders.

[quote]Garry Marshall was famously known for employing his family members -- both sisters (his "other" sister, Ronny, was an associate/coordinating producer on nearly all his projects), as well as his kids. But nobody was screaming "Neoptism!" back then. He was merely considered a very loyal guy, looking out for his family & friends, first. (he worked with the same people over & over).

[quote] And he also had a sense of humor about it. His younger daughter, Kathi, had bit parts in every one of his movies (and a couple of Penny's) -- most notably as the nearly-silent secretary in the Princess Diaries films. Her character was named Charlotte "Kutaway"....which is fricken hilarious! He certainly could have cast her in larger roles, if he'd wanted to, but he didn't.

He also cast Penny's daughter Tracy in bit parts in some of his movies. Mommy Penny got Tracy cast in A League of Their Own and adoptive dad Ron got her a small part When Harry Met Sally. I'm guessing Ron Howard either owed a favor to Ron or Penny because Tracy played one of the astronaut wives in Apollo 13.

[quote]But to directly answer your question: Yes, I do think her album is good enough to have made it on its own.

R401 My question was:

[quote]But would you have heard of her music if her parents weren't famous?

I think you misunderstood me. I didn't ask if you thought her album was good enough to have made it on its own. I was saying, would she have even had a chance to record it, if she was not Maya Hawke, daughter of famous people.

[quote]Evidence for my claim: When I first heard the song I linked, it was on a college radio station here in LA. I had zero idea who the band was. I actually Shazamed it. So she won me over only on the strength of the song itself. Nothing else. I assume that means a record executive might have been equally won over had her last name been Smith.

I'm not an expert on the music business, but how would that record executive have been won over if he never heard the music of some unknown, with no connections? (If she even is signed with a label, which I don't know.) Her acting fame came first, so I guess I was saying if she hadn't been an acting nepo baby, she might not have had any music career.

Kathi Marshall was also in A League of Their Own, as one of the background Peaches' ("Mumbles Brockman"). Specifically, she's standing next to Tom Hanks when he laughs about beaning "Stillwell Angel" with a thrown glove. And she's next to Madonna, during the "prayer" sequence in the locker room.

I went to high school with Kathi at Westlake School for Girls. We were on the Varsity basketball & softball teams together. She's a good egg.

[quote]Britain is now a place where 50% of 18 year olds go to university.

R381 So what about the 50% who don't go to university? I still don't really get the point. The working class may be shrinking - if it isn't actually gone, then the point that it's harder for actors and creatives from working class backgrounds to get ahead in theater/film/TV is still valid.

[quote] Nepotism is how you get the job, not how you achieve fame. Some of these opportunities are restricted to insiders.

It’s so funny how Eve Bono faux-complained about not being named in the nepotism article (not technically, she features in an illustration) she would have flown under the radar.

Are we nearly at 500 posts and NO ONE, especially the troll of all trolls has not mentioned DL icon Dominque Dunne yet, who had the ultimate Hollywood insider dad Dominick? It’s like she was created in a nepotism machine.

Sometimes talented people are related!!

R472 Then so was Griffin Dunne.

Acting (streaming), bands, modeling seem to be the big hang-outs for nepo-babies. On the other hand, I can't think of any stand-up comics--too hard. The closest I can think of is Maya Rudolph and she's a comic/sketch actress.

Am I missing someone?

Thought of one--Amy Shumer.

George Lopez' daughter Mayan.

Have Scott Caan and Scott Eastwood been mentioned yet? Scott Foley looks to get a pass on the Nepo baby route though.

Meghan Marble is neither well meaning or super earnest.

[quote]Stella McCartney isn't a great fashion designer but she has ideas and what must be a good staff. Her line has a point of view: fun, sporty. It has to be the most ethical of the LVHM brands. (insert your own joke). She has the whole vegetarian leather thing from her family's vegetarianism so she's ahead of the curve. She's no Willi Smith but she's more believable in an adjacent creative field than the Lennon boys are with music.

Stella is a horrible designer. What is her point of view? Don't wear leather? Her clothing is ugly. Most of it looks cheap, not like well-made designer level. Yes, I'm quite aware she doesn't deal with leather due to her parents vegetarianism. Still, that doesn't justify consumers spending hundreds on a pair fucking vinyl 'vegan leather' shoes.

Her designs don't reflect the bespoke level knowledge and expertise of the late great Alexander McQueen or the whimsy and bold attitude of Vivienne Westwood. You think with a Beatle dad, Stella would have designed one of her lines with as a 1960s tribute like Anna Sui. I cannot remember one memorable collection from Stella and I work in fashion advertising. Her smug face and attitude is also a huge turn-off.

This piece of Stella crap costs over $1000, it looks like something you can purchase at Macy's or Target.

R480 What does one wear that as/for/with?

It sounds like the equestrian world has lots of nepotism we well! But it’s cruel to evict your pregnant daughter on Christmas from the five million dollar apartment you bought her. Nepo babies have problems too!

That frumpy sweatshirt made of faux fur in a garish grape color is exactly what people want to wear right now.

It might be poorly designed, ugly and uninspired but it is right on target for how people live and dress after years of dodging infection and WFH.

r154, r455 here

[quote] Let's face it, Ella Beatty got into Julliard because of who her parents were, same with Meryl's at Yale. Remember

This is undeniably true: whatever the quality of their auditions, both institutions accepted them based on their parentage. It doesn't ipso facto mean they aren't talented or deserving ( I will leave that to others) It just means that they DID NOT HAVE TO COMPETE ON A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD FOR A SPOT, just like they don't really have to COMPETE FOR A ROLE ON A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD now that they are graduated. Note I am not saying they don't compete for roles and I admit that technically there is no such thing as a level playing field, the fact remains that powerful people in the industry are LOOKING FOR WAYS to hire them. Representing them is easy, nobody resists: Hiring them is easy: you don't have to battle anyone, the networks/studious don't resist nepotistic hires because in their calculation, the notoriety justifies it.

Here are two real life examples of how this shit goes down: These are from the horses mouth EXAMPLE 1 BROADWAY I guess we can agree that a job on Broadway is a landmark achievement for actors who work on the stage in the United States. Just getting an audition for a Broadway production is an achievement if you are unknown to the casting director. This example is from a Broadway revival of a very good play by a very famous English playwright. A young actress came in and nailed the audition, was just spectacular, the whole team was impressed. This actress was not famous and had no famous relatives. Then comes another young actress, whose mother is a very famous, respected actress. This girl had no training to speak of and while she was polite and gave an acceptable audition, it wasn't in the same league as the first actress. The famous daughter actress agent calls the casting director DEMANDING to know when his client will be presented with an offer "You DO know who she is, don't you" screamed the agent when told his client was not the front-runner for the role. the agent went on to say that his client AUDITIONED, and she should have just been offered the role based on who her mother is. The casting director pushed back and said "Sorry, it's not going her way" This agent ( with a huge office behind him/her) got to work on the producers and within days, our famous daughter gets the role she might not even have coveted and the other actress is scratching her head wondeiring what the hell happened. True story and many more like it

2nd story

A colleague was working on a television series for one of the major networks. This casting director colleague got a call from "WAY UPSTAIRS" saying that the nightly anchor of the evening news has a daughter who "wants to get into acting" It was made clear to my colleague that he/she was expected to do whatever he/she/they could possibly do to make that happen to keep a very important on air news anchor happy. Within months this newsman's daughter was working steadily with NO training, NO experience and found herself on a cultural smash series within a year.

My point is simply this: Neither of these girls would have even got an audition for the projects they booked because their powerful parents shadow loomed over the process.

[quote]A colleague was working on a television series for one of the major networks. This casting director colleague got a call from "WAY UPSTAIRS" saying that the nightly anchor of the evening news has a daughter who "wants to get into acting" It was made clear to my colleague that he/she was expected to do whatever he/she/they could possibly do to make that happen to keep a very important on air news anchor happy. Within months this newsman's daughter was working steadily with NO training, NO experience and found herself on a cultural smash series within a year.

This is, of course, Allison Williams, daughter of former NBC and MSNBC anchor Brian Williams, she's an awful actress. As far as I know, she hasn't done much beyond her GIRLS role and her appearance in Jordan Peele's first film. I haven't seen her in anything else and hopefully won't in the future.

If she's done anything else, it sure wasn't promoted or a hit film/series. Think she's already been married twice?

She was Peter Pain, I mean painful in Peter Pan.

Wasn't AW a bit too tall to play Peter Pain?

I wish the entire cast of GIRLS would simply fade away. None of the actresses were any good, only Jemima Kirke (who also had showbiz connections via her rocker drummer father Simon Kirke, formerly of Free and Bad Company), Jemima ended up being a good actress, with zero training, she attended art school. The guest stars were all good, especially the late Peter Scolari.

Jemima was actually the standout in Lens Dunham's first film Tiny Furniture. Lens is a terrible actress, she made the huge mistake casting herself as Hannah Horvath.

Unfortunately, we now have that Cro-Magnon looking Adam Driver being pushed as a sex symbol! 🤢 🤮

Speaking of Jemima Kirke, Jemima and her sister Lola Kirke are definitely nepotism babies via their famous drummer father. Think there is also another sister in showbiz. Who can keep up!

Jemima also attended St. Ann's with Lens, that was another connection which helped her get hired for GIRLS.

r484 Name names and fuck off with this blind item bullshit

Why is this greyed out?

The nepo babies found it

[quote ]George Lopez' daughter Mayan.

If Lopez vs. Lopez doesn't get a second season, she'll fizzle out of the business pretty quickly. I liked some of George's s old stand up comedy and I did like his first sitcom for awhile. I've watched a few episodes of Lopez vs Lopez and Mayan isn't a great actress. I also bet there will some kind of drama in regards to the little boy who plays her son on the show. The little boy Brice Gonzalez and his father Randy perform as a TikTok duo EnkyBoys. The father Randy was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer months ago and there's a gofundme for his medical bills. Little Brice will end up being used to support for his family and as we have seen in the past scene those situations don't end well.

[quote][R484] Name names and fuck off with this blind item bullshit

Don't get your panties in a fucking twist!

It was extremely easy to figure the second 'blind item' was Allison Williams. A truly awful 'actress'.

there is no need to name names..There are more people with family and friends in the industry than not. You could be referring to anyone.

Say my name, say my name!

Nepotism is alive and well, it goes back hundreds and even thousands of years.

I attended a Catholic grammar school, when it came to selecting leads in the school plays, usually the most talented kids, especially the ones with good singing voices were shunned. Why? Because the students whose parents belonged to The Holy Name and Rosary societies, church groups which consisted of parents who were always active in church events and also contributed money, were always picked over the talented kids.

A lot of the kids with real talent came from working class families, both their parents worked, they had little time to participate in after-school events, let alone contribute yet more money beyond the tuition. Some of these working class families, had more than one child enrolled in the school.

The other kids who attended Catholic school, didn't even come from religious families. Their parents couldn't afford private schools, back then a Catholic school was the closest a working class kid could get to a private school education. At least in NYC, that was the case.

The Royal Families were very heavy into nepotism! And primogeniture!

She was born 17 November 1966 in Paris, the second child of a shop assistant and a truck driver.

Jennifer Grant is an example of a nepo baby who didn't have a successful career in the business.

Maybe because she didn't start acting until she was 27.

Haven't seen Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez mentioned. Sean Penn's and Robert Downey Jr.'s fathers were both directors.

Sofia Coppola. Remember how bad she was in The Godfather Part 3? So then she decided to be a director, and of course if you've grown up in the world of film directing you're obviously going to be better at it than someone who didn't. And you're going to get praised by people (critics, agents) who are just trying to flatter your father, and as a result you get financial backing to direct more movies. Then you have the independence to do the projects you want, and so people think you're really an artist, etc. etc. It's impossible to disentangle her career from her father, because who else would have had her opportunities?

Slater was born on August 18, 1969, in New York City, the son of Michael Hawkins (born Thomas Knight Slater), an actor also known as Michael Gainsborough; and Mary Jo Slater (née Lawton), an acting agent turned casting executive and producer.

He has a maternal half-brother, Ryan Slater, who also became an actor.

I understand how the children of celebrities might be better looking or possess their parents’ insatiable appetite for attention, which makes them more inclined to pursue careers in acting. However, it’s always hilarious when they’re delusional enough to believe they got by on their own merits.

Nepotism is everywhere in every field. esp in business. there are so many people with no-show jobs etc etc.

[quote]What about the kids of very famous musicians?

Jakob Dylan didn't tell his bandmates or studio execs who his dad was until after they bagged their first record deal. He knew he was going to deal with never-ending shit and comparisons because of who his dad was. Fortunately, he actually has some musical talent, which is more than can be said for his son James and nephew Pablo, who have inflicted their recordings on the public.

You forgot Dhani Harrison, R365. Dhani and Jakob played video games in another room while their dads cut Traveling Wilbury tracks. Dhani has recorded a few songs and done some art shows.

Kids of Guns n Roses are musicians.

roger water's son is also a musician and he works/tours with him.

George W. Bush.

Has Jane Fonda been mentioned? Of course, we know her father, but her godfather was director Joshua Logan who cast her in her first film Tall Story (1960)

[Quote]What about the kids of very famous musicians?

and what about the sisters of The Jackson 5, Janet and La Toilet?

Kate Hudson weighs in on being called a nepo baby.

Several people commented that streaming shows were a factor here.

Why would that be the case?

R498

Sophie Marceau.

Very popular in France.

Très plouc.

Bad actress.

Not in the Isabelle Huppert/ Juliette Binoche league. At all.

Devon Aoki

In cinema, acting skills are not the be all end all of success. Someone can be captivating and mesmerizing on screen without being a great thespian. Prime example - Marilyn Monroe. Sophie Marceau was magnetic in her early films (although, looking back, the way camera fixates on her 14-year-old body in La Boum borders on perversive).

A person who benefits from nepotism can be talented, hard-working, and worthy of success... but still the beneficiary of nepotism.

A person with no connections can be talented, hard-working, and worthy too, but they aren't getting the agent and the auditions that a connected person is. Shame on Jamie Lee Curts being a twerp about this, after saying such sensible things earlier in life!

R512 Kate Hudson has nothing to be proud about in her family’s blood, they also all have Hep C and Chlamydia, all whores the lot of them! Especially Oliver!

R512 she’s 40 now??? Hahaha. Turning 44 in April is more like it.

And what happened to her face? It’s like a moon now did she always have no cheekbones?

R517, as has been pointed out in the Jamie Lee thread, she has only started talking in this manner recently. It is likely due to her being exposed to the victimization culture that surrounds transgenderism. Her kid is deep into this culture and Jamie has become the kid's advocate. Now, she is applying that language to herself. Maybe, she will eventually come around to her old self.

R513: I think it’s no coincidence streaming shows are anchored by nepo babies these days, because low costs are foremost on the streaming services’ minds. Take Emily in Paris for example: The show’s stars, Lily Collins, Lucas Bravo, Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu are all nepo babies.

The producers get a good looking cast willing to work for dirt cheap (and probably willing to handle most of their expenses), and the marginally talented actors get the attention they crave. Win/win.

Oh, and I also believe the reason a lot of top models these days are nepo babies is because the designers don’t have to pay them much. Mommy and daddy pay to get them around, their apartments, their food, and everything else that used to be covered by agencies and clients back in the day.

R521, I agree it is a win/win for the nepo babies and cheapo streaming services like Netflix but mostly lose/lose for the audience.

R515 Devon mostly starred in crap though. I think Sin City was her only decent role and i remember liking D.E.B.S

What about Beanie Feildsten? I mean come on. Having a whole Broadway show created just do you can show your meager talent? The audacity!!!

This is of course nothing new, but the premise here -and in the article- seems to be that it has greatly increased. Maybe, but to show that it would be good to have a systematic comparison of something in e.g. 1980 or 1990 and today. Many categories could be compared- award winners/nominees, regulars on shows, people with credited roles in studio films etc. It would be a lot of work, but if someone did it with samples it wouldn't be so crazy. Sorry to be a social scientist, but we'd be on a lot more solid ground and a lot less speculation that way. For ex, some have said the studio system worked against these tendencies, which is plausible We know when that ended and could look at the trend in nepo cases to see if there is a take-off after that point. But we are a LONG way from that time, so if there is a real increase in recent years some other factors must be at work.

[quote]The producers get a good looking cast willing to work for dirt cheap (and probably willing to handle most of their expenses), and the marginally talented actors get the attention they crave. Win/win.

I don't see the logic. Wouldn't new, unknown, non-nepo actors be just as willing (if not more) to work for dirt cheap? How would they be in a position to demand more money than anyone else? If anything, they're looking for any exposure or any break.

R521 (see above)

I work “under the line”, and it’s been very common to have political hires for all departments for some producer’s/director’s/whomever’s kids or friends. Usually if they have no skills, they’re hired as office or set PAs, although sometimes if they want to work in makeup without knowing anything, you’re forced to hire them anyway and waste your valuable man days budget- happened on the last show I was on.

Gayheart was born August 12, 1971 in Hazard, Kentucky, the third of four children born to Floneva "Flo" Gayheart (née Slone), who worked as a Mary Kay independent beauty consultant, and Curtis Gayheart, a miner and coal-truck driver.

[quote]For ex, some have said the studio system worked against these tendencies, which is plausible We know when that ended and could look at the trend in nepo cases to see if there is a take-off after that point.

Back in the early days of Universal, Carl Laemmle who was sometimes known as "Uncle Carl" was famous for hiring relatives from the old country - that's how Oscar-winning director William Wyler got his start in the business. Ogden Nash wrote: "Uncle Carl Laemmle has a very large faemmle."

At MGM some of Louis B. Mayer's relatives were employed by the studio, as were relatives of other execs. Producer Jack Cummings and director George Sidney were both hired relatives.

But I don't think actors begetting actors was as common then. Alan Ladd did have David Ladd, who was a child actor, and Alan Ladd, Jr. became a big executive.

R525, I don't think that it's the amount of nepotism that has triggered this discussion. It's the fact that people believe that, generally, their options for upward mobility in our society are being closed off. Rampant nepotism in the arts is just a symbol of this. It's bad enough that billionaires own everything, but now they rub it our faces--we have to watch their boring daughters clump down the runway and hear them applauded for being "supermodels."

What are nepo babies supposed to do with their lives then? They arent made for STEM courses because genes. If they set up a business, theyre still going to be accused of using daddy’s money. If they live off their trust fund, even if they live within their means, they are going to be called lazy.

They are not getting roles earmarked for Emma Stone and Margot Robbie, and not roles for Florence Pugh and Anya Taylor Joy. Lily Rose gets roles that Anya Taylor Joy passed on. For a middling project that cant get a big name, I guess Lily Rose’s name recognition helps. Its either her or some social media influencer wanting to try out movies. But sure, other actors have to try harder to get noticed.

What are they supposed to do? Get lost and stay outta my timeline. They could choose to live anonymously but that wouldn't satisfy.

Nepos are demanding fame and fortune as their birthright, they will have to accept the rest of society doesn't acknowledge them as shining stars.

This behavior of hiring and promoting only your own isn't restricted to the entertainment industry.

I was hired as a shop bottom during the great depression of 2008, but never promoted for a position higher than shopbottom.

I was not even guaranteed hours, but the friends, family and lovers of managers were given regular shifts. There are shifts and tasks that are less desirable. Friends, family members and lovers of managers do not work fucked up shifts and aren't tasked with jobs that are less desirable.

The next time you have a less satisfactory experience in store, remember the cliché, the fish rots from the head down.

No one knows anything, there is no accountability and everything is strictly mediocre.

The only 'super models' one hears about these days are the ugly nepo ones. And almost all of them are way too short and ugly to be in a JC Penney ad, much less the face of a major brand. Both the Moss and Klum daughters look to be about 5'3" if they're lucky.

Is there much nepotism in fields where it requires intense training, discipline and a very high skill level that can’t be faked? I’m thinking of ballet companies, symphonies, surgeons, scientists?

I’m a lawyer and I know fools can definitely fake their way through law school and pass the bar. Plenty of mediocre lawyers.

How about civil service professions like firefighting and policing?

R532, 1. There are many things besides Hollywood and STEM and those fields are not entirely based on genes anyway.

2. people who live quietly off of trust funds are largely invisible. They are seldom criticized as individuals, even if some want to redistribute societal wealth.

3. If people start a successful business in a different field from their parents they generally get some credit, even if they may have had financial help at the beginning. That will have also been true of other people in the new business, some of whom inherited their restaurants or car dealerships or real estate firms or whatever.

4. It's possible to have a trust fund and live comfortably while doing good works. You could be a public defender or a teacher and live better than people in those professions do without having your whole life and identity be consumer.

These people have lots of choices. I am sure some of them do these more laudable things and we don't hear about them.

Bruce Springsteen's son is a firefighter.

How can we expect the nepo to have a clue when many of their parents don't?

I worked at a used bookstore, verifying first editions and entering ISBN info into an online sales database, among other duties. David Weiss, the other Was "brother" from Was Not Was, dragged his 12 year-old son in one afternoon and tried to charm the owner into giving the kid my job.

He wasn't even a regular customer and the owner was taken aback by his presumptuous attitude. She had to explain more than once that it was illegal to employ a child that age with no work permit, that she'd have to pay into Workman's Comp for him (yes, you can get injured lifting boxes and climbing ladders), and that the kid had to have more skills than just putting books on shelves. She also resented being used for free child care.

David looked genuinely baffled. The kid looked like he'd rather be home playing video games. They finally left and he never came back again as a customer, not that we'd seen him that much before.

Re Lily Collins, pretty sure few know Lily’s dad, Genesis drummer/singer Phil Collins, started as a child actor. IIRC, Phil had a small role in one of the Beatle films.

Lily's mom Jill Tavelman a California socialite with showbiz connections. Perhaps if Lily wasn't Phil's daughter, she'd still have showbiz connections via her mom.

Jill Tavelman is the former president of the Beverly Hills Women's Club. Lily's maternal grandfather was a Canadian Jewish immigrant who owned a men's clothing store in Beverly Hills, where many of the clients were celebrities.

[quote][R480] What does one wear that as/for/with?

That cheap looking magenta furry thing, ‘designed’ by Stella McCartney, is listed as a coat.

This Stella McCartney bag is super ugly. When worn, it's actually really floppy and shapeless and looks like something you'd take to the farmers' market to put your fruit into.

That said, I did like her very early collaboration with Adidas.

r480 Genuinely looks like something Edina Monsoon would wear. Shows how much current fashion has lost the plot. Eddie would be praised today as a fashion icon

Actually might have the wrong character...

Ella Beatty has a slight resemblance to Aunt Shirley and cousin Sachi.

You know, R530, I think the old Hollywood Studio System had more nepotism behind the camera than in front of it! Executives were happy to give each other's male relatives jobs as "yes men" and put them where they couldn't do any harm, but actors, writers, and directors had to have real talent!

So the studios had talent scouts who traveled the world in search of the talented and photogenic, and they'd make the children of miners or garbagemen into movie stars. Sure, there were some second-generation actors such as the wonderful Douglas Fairbanks Jr., but if they didn't catch on with the public they got the boot same as anyone. No, back then Hollywood was a force for social mobility, every time they made a dirt-poor foster child into Marilyn Monroe or a Barbara Stanwyck, they made the "American Dream" of a meritocratic world seem possible. And that's gone now, and that's why this article and the ensuing discussion are actually important.

Totally agree, R546. And that's why it can be hard for the audience to be interested in someone like Ella Beatty at R414.

So now we understand that meritocracy is as much as a myth as American exceptionalism. A little shop bottom position, long considered an entry level position and suitable for low skilled workers, are filled by people who have relationships with management.

It's absurd.

Nothing gets done correctly or on time and no one is accountable.

I really don't think Stella McCartney's that bad. It's a commercial label. She probably has fans too because there aren't a lot of female designers.

Juno Temple was born in the Hammersmith area of London on 21 July 1989, the daughter of film producer Amanda Pirie and film director Julien Temple.

Also, a lot of actors in the old days, like Tracy, Gable, Davis, Hepburn, Fonda, Clift, etc. had stage experience, unlike most actors today.

*Film/TV actors today.

I dont think any of these dimwits are smart enough to live off their trust funds. Budgeting requires math.

I'd say that around 1% of Nepo Babies actually display some acting talent.

Fiona Dourif (daughter of Brad Dourif) is one. Bitch inherited her father's dark twistedness.

[quote]I really don't think Stella McCartney's that bad. It's a commercial label. She probably has fans too because there aren't a lot of female designers.

There are tons of unknown talented people going to some of the best fashion design schools in the world, yet, we all know Stella McCartney got easy access to that world because her father was a Beatle and still a very famous musician. That's the point.

There is nothing original or outstanding about her designs.

Actually, several female designers are now coming into their own, in fact, one designer who worked for Stella, Phoebe Philo, had worked for Celine and Chloe. Phoebe Philo is currently working on her own label.

Hmmm Harley Quinn Smith (daughter of Kevin Smith) has flown under the radar too. She’s in a lot of her father’s movies, including one with Lily Rose Depp.

[quote] Stella McCartney got easy access to that world because her father was a Beatle and still a very famous musician. That's the point.

My point is that she's good at *something* because she could have been a mommy influencer or a blogger instead. Her label is a decent sized operation. Is she much worse that Mark Jacobs? He's currently on an upswing with this 90s revival stuff.

Perhaps vegan leather is stupid but she's genuinely trying

Marc Jacobs:

[quote] Jacobs was born to a non-observant Jewish family in New York City.[6][7][8] When he was seven, his father, an agent at the William Morris Agency, died. His mother, who remarried three times, was, according to Jacobs, "mentally ill" and "didn't really take care of her kids."[9] As a teenager, he went to live with his paternal grandmother on the Upper West Side, in an apartment in the Majestic on Central Park West.[10]

Marc Jacobs..maybe that's more privilege.

Emma Thompson is the daughter of actors. Her sister is an actor. Both of her husbands have been actors.

Her daughter is an actress and 2 of her 3 credits have been in films starring her mother.

Do we consider Julie Andrews as a Nepo baby with her parents vaudeville background?

Child designer Cecilia Cassini is Oleg's great grandaughter

Maybe she got an earlier start for that reason, but if so, a case of someone even more meritorious than Fonda or Minelli.

R563 is in reference to Julie Andrews not young Ms. Cassini.

I see Kate Hudson has thrown her hat into the ring. Every time she talks she sounds more stupid.

I wonder why Weston Cage hasn't had a bigger career. When he's not looking like Dracula, he's really hot!

[quote]Do we consider Julie Andrews as a Nepo baby with her parents vaudeville background?

R561 Not really. Neoptism means that someone in a position of power or influence helps a relative or friend. Her parents probably didn't have much power or influence, and she ended up supporting the family as a child. They probably were more of an influence, similar to Judy Garland's parents having been in vaudeville and recognizing her talent and giving her a push.

Cindy Sussman owns this thread.

Weston Cage apparently has some mental issues...

Dan Levy.

I don't mind what Stella McCartney is doing. She's designing and producing a product for sale. If it's shit, nobody would buy it. There's obviously a market for her designs.

On the other hand, these nepo models and nepo actors can't be avoided. They're still going to be in fashion shows and cast in films whether people want to see them or not.

[quote]If it's shit, nobody would buy it

You do know we're talking about the fashion world, right?

Susan Alexandra Weaver was born in New York City on October 8, 1949.

Her mother, Elizabeth Inglis (born Desiree Mary Lucy Hawkins), was an English actress and a native of Colchester, England.

Weaver's father, Sylvester "Pat" Weaver Jr., was an American television executive born in Los Angeles, who served as president of NBC between 1953 and 1955 and created NBC's Today Show in 1952.

Nepos also foist other nepos on the public. It was supposedly Yoko Ono's granddaughter who got Levi Dylan his first few "modeling" gigs while they were dating.

Would Stella McCartney have had ANY success if her last name wasn't McCartney?

The best is listening to Dan Levy talk about how when he worked at MTV Canada no one knew who his father was. As if everyone there wasn’t hissing “that MARY is Eugene Levy’s son.”

Maybe it’s because I haven’t experienced nepotism, I just can’t wrap my head around being that sensitive about it. When these rich kids of celebrities have such chips on their shoulders when the topic comes up, it seems like such a beautiful “problem” to have. Like if that’s the cross you have to bear, please sign me the fuck up.

Jesus Christ, you bitches would be all over Dahmer’s son if he ate more people than his father because he already had a leg up in the industry!

For every Ava Gardner crawling out of the Carolina tobacco fields on her hands and knees, there’s a hundred nepo babies arriving on set in limousines

r578, Teslas, dear.

what is this fixation with rags to riches?

The discussion is about entertainers who are related to industry insiders and are gifted opportunities non-insiders don't have.

Rags to riches is a plot device and not necessarily relevant to this subject.

Again, this is a working actor with industry credit from a lauded television program who worked at Trader Joe's when his career slowed down.

He worked at Trader Joe's because he's not a nepo baby.

This is not about rags to riches to rags, its about an industry with limited opportunities that are reserved for insiders and the elite.

Merit, talent and even good looks are secondary.